


Tiger Moth

by ryerim



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Blood and Violence, Character Death, Eventual Romance, Everyone is foul mouthed, M/M, Mild Smut, Post-Apocalypse, The Last of Us AU, and everyone needs a hug, don't expect too much i can't write smut to save my life, junhao are brothers in this pls don't hate, there are some side-pairings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-18
Updated: 2018-01-26
Packaged: 2018-10-19 14:31:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 45,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10641810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ryerim/pseuds/ryerim
Summary: The cure to the brain infection that has devastated mankind comes in the form of an inconspicuous boy. As fate wants it, Mingyu and his friends get dragged into the mission of smuggling him to a group of researchers in a town nearby.Things don't exactly go according to plan. The journey turns out be one hell of a ride and Mingyu has to keep reminding himself that at the end of the day, they will have to sacrifice said boy’s life to save the world.





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

 

_Fifteen years ago, the outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus caused half of the human population to turn into what they now call **infected**. _

_The virus was sneaky, and it happened within only a few days. Not enough time for humanity to defend itself, because they weren’t prepared. Not at all._

_At first it was simple headaches, shrugged off as nothing but stress and migraines._

_Then it was runny eyes and noses. Maybe allergies or hay fever, nothing to worry about._

_But then the coughing started, bloodshot eyes, uncontrollably high fevers. The number of cases of sick people shot up into hundreds of thousands over night and by the time the authorities started to suspect that something more serious than initially presumed was happening, it was already too late._

_An old man attacked a police officer at a mall out of nowhere, bit him in the neck countless times until he was shot by the colleague of the police officer. They tried to blame it on 'Spice', the so called 'zombie drug' at first since there had been cases alike in previous years, not wanting to cause mass hysteria._

_But by the time it hit the news, hundreds and thousands of people had already started going berserk, too many to fool the public with their fake explanations, and within the span of just a few hours, all around the globe, complete chaos ensued._

_It wasn’t a gas leak that caused it. It wasn’t some kind of experiment in a lab that went wrong._

_For once in the history of humans fucking up, this was not their fault._

_Nature did it._

_Something as harmless as a fungus ended up wiping out seventy percent of the world’s human population within days._

_Seventy percent._

_That’s about 4 billion individual people, babies and children, friends and families, all of them turning into monsters with only one thing in mind: spreading the infection._

_They weren’t zombies. They weren’t out there to eat humans._

_The fungus inside their brain made them attack every living thing that didn’t carry the scent of the fungus on their body, and their only goal was to infect every living thing with it._

_And maybe that’s what’s most scary about it all; the fact that those things aren’t just mindless zombies hungry for human flesh, the way you see them portrayed in movies and comic books._

_They may be predictable, but they’re not swayed by emotions or distracted by desires like humans are._

_They go after their targets without guilt or empathy._

_The infection makes a mother kill it’s own child without thinking twice._

 

 

****

 

 

 

The tip of the knife barely touches his hand, but the faint pressure on the centre of his palm is enough to prick the skin. 

Mingyu watches the pearl of blood pool out of the cut and the only thing his mind comes up with is that if he were to touch something contaminated right now, he would turn into a monster within the next forty-eight hours.

Everyone has a sound that soothes their nerves, something that makes them calm down whenever things get too hectic and crazy. 

It might be someone’s voice, or it might be a song. 

For Mingyu it’s the sound of thunderstorms. The violent rumbling of the sky and the way the heavy rain drops hit every surface on the earth.

He used to watch the drops run down the sides of windows in tiny little rivers, betting on the fastest ones while they were racing against each other before they pooled together into nothingness at the bottom.

It’s one of the reasons why Mingyu spends so much time up here in the greenhouse, surrounded by growing vegetable and failed attempts at fruit trees on their own. It’s made entirely out of glass and he can see the entire width of the sky perfectly like this. 

Can watch the rain fall down from below without getting wet.

The world seems peaceful. He blinks, once. Twice. He takes a deep breath and looks at the sky again, and it’s still all the same. 

He’s still alive. He’s healthy. Nothing happens. 

But then he hears the sirens go off outside, hears the sound of guns being fired and he presses his eyes together tightly in hopes of blocking it all out for only a few more seconds.

Just to pretend a little longer.

“Mingyu?“ Someone shouts and he gives up. 

Duty calls.

“I’m here.“ He yells back and sits up from where he was leaning against a rolled up camping mat. 

He quickly puts the knife away inside of it and balls his hand up into a fist to hide the blood smeared on his skin.

Seungkwan’s head pops up from behind the railing of the stairs, his best friend sighing heavily upon seeing his position. “Should’ve known you’re up here, huh?“ 

“I was knocked out.“ Mingyu lies and rubs at his eyes. “What’s up?”

“Come with me. Jiyong wants to talk to us.“ Seungkwan says and waits for Mingyu to get up, his eyes narrowing. „Are you okay? Bad dream again?“ 

Mingyu hesitates and decides to play along, familiar with the concern displayed in Seungkwan’s bright eyes.“Just a dream.“ He smiles, just to make the worry melt out of the younger’s features. 

It’s not like Mingyu’s that much older than Seungkwan, there’s only a year between them. But age doesn’t really matter anymore in this kind of world, it’s all about mental and physical strength and while Seungkwan isn’t lacking in either, he’s still too fragile, too thoughtful.

Naive, in a way. 

_He’s too kind to survive on his own,_ is how Jiyong likes to put it.

“What’s this about?“ He asks while they walk through the halls of the military basement. This building used to be a university back when things were normal, so everything from the walls to the windows is enormous and getting lost is something that used to happen on a daily basis years ago when Mingyu and Seungkwan were brought here. 

They got the hang of it after twelve years more or less spent locked up in here.

Seungkwan shrugs, greeting someone that passes them. “He didn’t say. Could be about next week.“ There’s excitement laced within his voice and Mingyu knows immediately what Seungkwan means; they’re going on outside, for the first time.

After having been trapped within the borders of the quarantine zone for so many years, it feels more than just a little exciting to be allowed to finally go outside.

Into the _real world,_ as people like to call it around here. 

Mingyu knocks against their leader’s office door once they've reached the third floor, steps inside without waiting for an answer. 

“Where were you?“ Jiyong wants to know, slurring through the cigarette he’s got clenched between his chapped lips. He’s not that old, probably around his mid thirties, but shit happens and his hair has started to turn grey years before it normally should have. 

It’s hard to find cigarettes these days, has been a nightmare for chain smokers for years now, but Jiyong refuses to give up on his addiction. " _Anything that will get me out of this fucked up world faster"_ he always says whenever Seungkwan asks him to stop. 

Mingyu supposes that the man is some kind of father figure for Seungkwan. They both don’t have parents anymore so he kind of understands but then again, no one could ever replace his parents and Jiyong’s too much of an asshole to gain his respect like that.

“Greenhouse.“ Mingyu answers before he sits down in one of the two chairs positioned in front of his desk, stretching his legs out to place his boots on top of Jiyong’s desk. Seungkwan sits down on the other one and Mingyu can’t help but grin when Seungkwan shoots him an amused look. 

He really can’t remember just how many times they sat in those chairs before, more often than not for doing stupid shit that didn't sit well with the officials. Jiyong’s always been a more hands on kind of guy and Mingyu also has forgotten just how many times they got slapped across the face for it. Or had to sleep on cold cement floor to make them think about their " _stupid and reckless actions that will get them killed one day"._

“Get your dirty feet off my desk, you brat.“ Jiyong snaps but Mingyu keeps them there, watching how the man rolls his eyes and gives up on him. „Why are you here?“ He rasps. 

Seungkwan sighs. “You ordered us here, Jiyong.“

Jiyong watches them carefully with his dark eyes and Mingyu stares right back, waiting for him to get a move on and talk.  “I’ve been thinking…”

“Oh no.” Mingyu mutters under his breath.

“And I’ve made up my mind about you two going on your first mission together.” Jiyong continues, unfazed by the alarmed look flaming in both Mingyu’s and Seungkwan’s eyes. 

“What does that mean?” Mingyu wants to know, already sensing that he won’t be liking this very much. 

“It means that I don’t think— I _know_ you aren’t ready to go outside on your own.“

Both Seungkwan and him instantly open their mouths to protest but Jiyong silences them with one single glare. “I’m not saying you can’t go, so hear me out before throwing a fit. I’m just saying you can’t go on your own.“

Mingyu sits up in his chair, his face hardening. “But that’s not necessary. We know what’s out there. We’ve been training for this for almost ten years! We’re ready, Jiyong, are you serious?“ 

“Listen here shitface.” Jiyong leans forward on his desk. “I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen: You’re going to get cornered by infected, and Seungkwan will be too busy pissing himself that he won’t be able to help you, while you’re once again too sure of your sorry self while trying to take down all of them on your own. You’ll be bitten by one of those things before you can even open your mouth to scream for my ass to save you.“ 

“I’m not an idiot. I can protect him.“ Mingyu buts in, annoyed with how Jiyong’s talking about them, as if they haven’t been through hell to get this far. They’re ready, Seungkwan’s ready; Mingyu wouldn’t fucking allow him to go outside if it wasn’t the case. 

He’d never risk Seungkwan’s life like that.

“I don’t need you to protect me.“ Seungkwan whispers and Mingyu knows he’s close to tears because Seungkwan always cries when he’s angry which isn’t a good thing, since Jiyong will take it for weakness. 

“No, what you need is someone to protect _both_ of you. Someone’s who’s been out there before.“ Jiyong says. „Guys, it’s one thing to talk about killing someone but it’s an entirely different thing actually doing it. I know you brats like the back of my hand, none of you would be able to shoot a bullet through someone’s head!“

“I thought the purpose of this is for the both of us to learn how to survive on our own out there.“ Mingyu speaks up and his voice shakes. He's frustrated, because there's truth in Jiyong's words.

He knows how to use a gun, knows where to shoot to kill an infected with one single bullet, knows how to be stealthy. He knows every little thing there is to know to survive in the world outside yet he hasn’t ever actually killed one.

“I’ve more or less watched you guys grow. Even if I might seem like an old asshole most of the time, I’m not too keen on finding your corpses out there or worse, seeing you walk around as one of _them_. So I’m telling you, that for your first time, someone’s going to come with you. And if you’ve got a problem with that you can go help Yeri wash the dishes instead.“ 

Seungkwan doesn’t say anything, keeps his head down. 

“Who is it?“ Mingyu wants to know. 

“Woozi.“ Jiyong says and Mingyu doesn’t miss the roll of Seungkwan’s eyes at the mentioned name.

He's talking about Jihoon, but around here almost everyone has some kind of code name to cover up their identities and shorter names are more convenient during missions. He’s a few years older than them, has been here for a longer time too and he’s a... decent guy. He used to help them out with their studies or when military drills got a little too much back when they were younger and their bodies were sore and their muscles inflamed from all the work.

Which isn’t to say the guy isn’t strict as hell, hence Seungkwan’s reaction. Mingyu lost count on how many times Jihoon’s given them an earful when they were being _little ungrateful brats_ , as Jihoon liked to call them. He's like Jiyong in that way.

“Okay.“ Mingyu says because there’s no sense in fighting. He doesn’t want to wait another year to be let outside and he honestly doesn’t care if Jihoon tags along. 

“Great. Now get lost, you’re giving me a fucking headache.“ 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a week later and Mingyu’s not asleep like he should be. 

Tomorrow they’re going to leave the borders together with Jihoon and he really just wants to get up and leave right away. It feels like he’s waited his entire life and every additional hour feels like torture. 

Their bags are all packed and sitting in the corner, looking heavier than anything Mingyu’s had to carry on his back so far.

“Mingyu?“ Seungkwan’s voice from the top bunk echoes through their small bedroom. 

It’s weird because years before, when the world was still a considerably peaceful place, Seungkwan and Mingyu might haven been here too, roommates at this university where their only problems would consist of exams and girls. At least that’s what the older people told them about their days at school. 

Not that Mingyu would know anything about how it is to have such mundane struggles. He basically grew up in this destroyed world where healthy people definitely were representing the minority. 

He was six when all of this started. He remembers his mom waking him up in the middle of the night, telling him to quickly get dressed. 

He remembers sitting in the car later, together with his parents, his sisters and his dog curled up on his lap. 

He remembers all the people on the street, the cars honking, sirens, megaphones. Houses on fire. People running and screaming.

And then he remembers the crash, the world turning upside down, and the last thing he saw before everything went black. 

A man, tackling a little boy to the ground and _biting_ him like an animal and blood spilling everywhere.

He remembers the boy’s gut wrenching screams. Like he could ever forget that. 

And when he woke up again, his leg was hurt so much and he was crying because his sisters weren’t moving, his parents weren’t moving and his little dog was gone. There was blood everywhere, people were screaming and he was just six, he didn’t understand. 

Then there were heavy boots coming to a halt right in front of their car that was turned upside down. Someone crouched, looked inside. 

_“We’ve got a little kid, male. Family looks to be dead. Please give instructions.“_

Mingyu felt tears pool in his eyes at the mention of his family being dead. 

_“I understand.“_ The man said and then he tried to open the door but the car was too damaged, too deformed and it wouldn’t budge. _„I need you to move back a bit and cover your eyes.“_ The man in the military uniform said. Mingyu was crying softly but he crawled back, his hands getting drenched with something wet; blood. His family’s blood.

The soldier broke the window and then reached a gloved hand inside. He was holding a gun in his other one. _„Come here. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to take you somewhere safe.“_ He said in a calm voice when Mingyu wouldn’t move. 

_“What about my parents?“_ Mingyu asked in a shaky voice. He didn’t want to leave without his parents, or his sisters. Or his little dog. Cheeto. What happened to him?

_“They’re dead.“_ The man said, not trying to sugar coat it. Mingyu started to cry at that, scared and confused. Dead? Didn’t that only happen in movies? They were going to come back, right? Once they woke up his dad would come and pick him up. His dad never let him down. _„Come on now.“_

Mingyu took the man’s hand and crawled outside. _“My leg hurts._ “ He hiccuped when he tried to stand on it. 

The man crouched down to touch it but Mingyu cried out in pain so he stopped. _“Climb on my back. I’ll carry you._ “ 

The military man carried him through the deserted streets of the town and Mingyu didn’t understand what was going on. He was crying all the time, wanting to go back to his family. Why couldn’t they come with him now?

_“There was a man. He bit a little boy. Why did he do that?_ “ He asked when the man and him sat down in a little bus with even more military people in it. There was a little girl as well, crying in the corner on the lap of a woman wearing military equipment as well.

The soldier was quiet for a moment. _“He was sick_.“ 

_“Like a cold_?“ Mingyu asked further. He never bit people when he caught a cold. 

_“Yeah, like a cold_.“ The man sighed. 

_“Where are we going_?“ Mingyu asked further. 

_“Somewhere safe._ “ 

 

Somwhere safe ended up being an orphanage in one of the many quarantine zones once city after city were placed under martial law. He met Seungkwan there, and they proceeded to live there until Mingyu turned twelve, which is when soldiers came and took the children that were old enough to bring them to the military boarding school.

“Mingyu?“ Seungkwan asks again when Mingyu doesn’t answer after a minute. 

“Yeah?“ Mingyu mumbles, rubbing at his eyes sleepily. 

“Are you scared?“ Seungkwan asks and Mingyu can hear the way his voice shakes slightly.

“Are _you_?“ He asks back but he already knows the answer. He knows Seungkwan like the back of his hand, no words needed. 

“Yes.“ Seungkwan whispers. It’s quiet for a moment and Mingyu blinks, trying to sort his thoughts. Then there’s some movement from above before Seungkwan jumps down. „Can I sleep with you tonight?“ 

Mingyu wordlessly moves to make room for Seungkwan to slip inside the bed next to him. 

They used to do this a lot when they were younger, when the sounds of gunshots and the wailing and screeching of the infected outside used to be foreign and scary to them. Or when the older kids at the orphanage picked on them or beat them up simply for the sake of it, because they were stronger and because there wasn't anyone who really cared. Mingyu had to defend both of them because Seungkwan hardly had the courage to speak up, when people stepped on them and tried to steal their belongings, not expecting them to fight back. 

They’d hide underneath the covers and hold each other’s hands until both of them fell asleep when things got too scary for them to handle.

“Aren’t you scared at all?“ Seungkwan whispers again once he’s under Mingyu’s covers, both of them laying on their backs.

Mingyu blinks against the darkness for a tense moment, listening to the sounds of heavy boots passing their room. „I am.“ He speaks. „But I’m mostly just excited. You're excited too, aren't you?“ 

Seungkwan nods. “I’m trying to focus on that, too.“ He says softly. 

Mingyu sighs and turns to his side, throwing an arm around Seungkwan’s middle to try and comfort him. „Seungkwan, we’re ready. You said so yourself. And Jihoon’s coming with us, he’s been out there countless times before. We’ll be fine. I’ll make sure of it.“ 

Seungkwan turns his head to face him and Mingyu tries not to let it get to him, how much younger and more innocent Seungkwan looks all of a sudden. „Promise?“ 

“I promise.“ 

 

 

 

“Guys.“ 

Mingyu stirs in his sleep, his arm around Seungkwan tightening in a knee-jerk reaction to protect the younger when he feels someone grip and shake his shoulders. 

“Mingyu, Seungkwan. Wake up.“ The voice says again, more urgent this time around, and Mingyu grumbles once before slowly blinking his eyes open. He looks up, squinting against the light streaming inside from the door that’s been left open. 

“Jihoon?“ He slurs and carefully pulls his arm back from where he had it wrapped around Seungkwan. „What time is it?“

“Sun’s about to rise. We need to get to Silverley before sunset.“ Jihoon explains. He reaches a careful hand out, curling it around Seungkwan’s shoulder to get the younger to wake up. “Seungkwan, come on. Get up.“ 

Seungkwan whines, tries to shake the hand off and turn back around to sleep again and Mingyu climbs over Seungkwan’s body to go get changed. 

“We need to go and pick up the equipment from Minho before we leave.“ Jihoon says quietly as he walks over to lean against the doorframe. „Jiyong’s prepared everything. We’ve got about ten ration cards each, we’ll take as much rations as we can carry.“ 

Mingyu nods while he pulls a thick hoodie over his head. “So what, once we run out, we come back?“ 

Jihoon nods. “We’ll have to make it last. To Silverley’s quarantine zone and back. That’s the idea. If you’re still alive by then, that is.“ 

Mingyu grins up at him and Jihoon smiles back and Mingyu thinks that they’ll be okay. They have to be. 

“What’s going on?“ Seungkwan’s sleepy voice interrupts the silence in the room. Mingyu looks up from where he’s checking the content of their bags once again, just to make sure. 

“We’re heading out. Get up and get dressed.“ Jihoon orders and while he doesn’t do it in a forceful way, there’s a sense of authority in his voice, subtle yet present. Seungkwan blinks for a moment but then sits up, stretching until his back cracks. 

Mingyu looks outside the window to check the weather but it’s hard to see since the sun still hasn’t risen but there’s droplets clinging to the window, indicating that it’s been raining during the night and probably will during the day too. 

He puts his boots on and laces them up tightly. They’re not going to wear their military gear since they have to be undercover for their first mission outside. Wearing a military uniform is like spraying a big red X on your body, a target for rebels and hunters out there who would gut anyone who’s part of the military at sight.

There’s also the fireflies who hate their guts, so it’s best for them to stay in the shadows and go as unnoticed as possible. 

Once they’re all packed up Mingyu helps Seungkwan with the loops of his backpack, making it as secure as possible so nothing falls off should things get a little hectic, which he assumes they will. “You good?“

Seungkwan nods and smiles, patting his cheek once in reassurance and Mingyu pushes him away by the chest jokingly, wrapping his arm around his neck before he can stumble back.

“Okay, come on, we need to hurry.“ Jihoon interrupts with a sigh.

Mingyu takes one last look around in their room before following the both of them out of the room, shutting the door tightly behind himself. 

It’s weird. They’re finally leaving this place, after so many years. Not for good... but still. 

Somehow, he imagines this is what it must’ve felt like for people to get out of prison after years sitting behind the bars. Feeling liberated yet… scared at the same time. Scared of the world outside, from the things that might have changed during their absence, scared of not being able to adapt, fit into the normal routine of life again. 

The halls are empty for now; duties don’t begin until after sunrise. Jihoon leads them down the stairs and underground where they keep their equipment. 

“Are we going to see Jiyong before we leave?“ Mingyu wants to know while Jihoon’s busy opening up the heavy cement door. 

“Yeah, he's waiting for us at the exit.“ 

It’s cold down here so Mingyu lets him when Seungkwan huddles closer against his back while they watch Jihoon pull around on the various boxes placed upon makeshift shelves. 

“We can’t carry too much gear, it’ll just slow us down.“ Jihoon explains. He starts handing them various boxes of ammo, giving them a simple compact handgun and knife each.

“What’s that?“ Seungkwan asks when Jihoon places a few round objects on the table.

“Shit! Are those grenades?” Mingyu can’t really contain his excitement, reaching out to touch them.

Jihoon slaps his hand away, scoffing at the offended look on Mingyu’s face. “Don’t fucking touch them you idiot. And they’re smoke bombs. Very useful in case you need to escape. Doesn’t stop infected but, you know, other scum that’s roaming around out there.“ 

They pack the stuff into their bags and Mingyu hates to admit it, but it feels weird to load a gun knowing that he’ll have to shoot one of these bullets through someone’s head instead the dummies they use in training.

Their backpacks get noticeably heavier with everything they threw in there. Seungkwan grunts when Mingyu helps him slip it back on his shoulders. “God, it feels like there’s stones in there.“

Jihoon snorts and clips his own backpack secure around his shoulders. “Let’s go and meet Jiyong.“ He checks them up and down to see if they have everything before he leads them out of the room and down another, darker hallway. 

There are some guys standing there in front of a shelf and looking closer, Mingyu recognizes them to be one of the many people who do the dirty jobs for Jiyong.

It’s a bit useless to call them that, because nearly everything they do are dirty jobs around here.

One of them puts out his cigarette upon seeing them. “Ready?“ He rasps. Mingyu tries not to stare at the scar that starts from underneath his right eye and goes all the way down to the right corner of his lips. He can only guess where he got that one from. 

Jihoon nods, squinting his eyes at them. “Where’s Jiyong?“ 

„Couldn’t make it.“ The other one speaks. “Something important came up.“ 

Mingyu snorts, because _of course,_ and scarface shoots him a warning glare. He shouldn’t be surprised, but one would think that after eight years of basically raising Seungkwan and him Jiyong wouldn’t be that much of an asshole to miss their departure. 

Hell, he probably would only roll his eyes if they were to die out there. 

Jihoon - for some reason - looks concerned about that information but nods nonetheless. “Alright. Let us out.“ 

“Huh?“ Seungkwan makes when the guys begin to push the shelf away to reveal a rather small hole in the wall. „We’re going through _here_?“ 

Jihoon turns around to face them and nods curtly. “There are a bunch of infected that gathered around the area of the gates over night. This will lead us straight to the outskirts without having to deal with them.“ 

„Is this safe?“ Mingyu wants to know when Seungkwan sends him an alarmed look. “How do you know there aren’t infected in there?“ 

Jihoon grins at him. “I walked it up and down before getting you guys. It’s free, trust me.“ 

Mingyu senses that the guys are getting impatient, one of them spits right in front of his shoes. Mingyu looks up and right into his eyes, cocking his head a bit. „That’s fucking disgusting, you pig.“ 

“You wanna say that again, kid?“ The guy grunts back, pushing out his chest, trying to tower over Mingyu’s form which isn’t that hard. Mingyu isn’t small by any means, but that guy is over his thirties and has structures to his body that Mingyu can’t compete with even after going through his growth spurt at seventeen. 

“Ease up, Chanyeol.“ Jihoon says, stepping in between the two to push the taller man away from Mingyu. 

“Jiyong must be out of his mind, letting a bunch of kids go on this suicide mission.“ The man grumbles before nodding his head towards the entrance. „Get in there before I run out of patience.“ 

“Someone needs to get that stick out of his ass.” Mingyu mumbles to himself, smirking a bit when the man shoots him another deathly glare.

Jihoon sighs and grabs Mingyu’s arm like an annoyed mother dragging away her bratty child. “Shut _up_.” He hisses into Mingyu’s ear. “I’ll go first. It’s a bit of a drop.“ 

Mingyu watches Jihoon disappear in the opening and tells Seungkwan to go second. He doesn’t trust those brainless bastards all that much. He jumps in right after and instantly gets hit in the face by a foul smell. 

“What the fuck is this?“ Mingyu groans while Jihoon fumbles to get his flashlight working. 

„Turn yours on too.“ He turns around and starts walking after. “And they used to dispose bodies here a few years ago. At least until the stench started to get through the walls and into the university.“ 

“Should we watch out for bones?“ Mingyu asks and chuckles quietly when Seungkwan hits him in the ribs. 

Jihoon only has a sigh spare for Mingyu's comment. “No, they burned the corpses a while ago. Can’t do anything about the smell though.“ 

They walk in near silence for a long while. Jihoon tells them a few things about the city outside the border, what they need to look out for especially, things like that. Seungkwan cries out a few times when rats attack his legs and it makes Mingyu laugh despite the situation. 

“We’re almost there.“ Jihoon says then, walking a few more steps before he stops. He directs his flashlight at something that Mingyu recognizes to be some kind of makeshift ladder. „I’ll go first. Just to make sure.“ 

“Where does this lead to?“ Mingyu asks while he watches how Jihoon climbs up the ladder. The older puts the flashlight between his teeth and pushes his palms against the roof with his palms. It’s too dark to see at first but it’s covered with a wooden plank where there’s a small opening. 

“A drugstore.“ Jihoon says before climbing out of the opening. 

“Go on.“ Mingyu mumbles and climbs up too once Seungkwan’s up there safely. Jihoon covers the opening again with the wooden plank and when Mingyu takes a look around, he feels slightly dejected. 

The drugstore looks like a battlefield. Shelves are pushed to the ground, empty bottles of antibiotics and other kinds of medicine scattered all over the place. He can make out bullet holes in the walls, making him question where they’re coming from. 

There’s nothing left to use. Nothing. One would think that there would at least be something in here that people wouldn’t have a use for during times like these, like make-up or perfume but then again, not everyone died. He doesn’t know what the people that live apart from the government, outside the borders, are up to.

“Let’s keep moving.“ Jihoon says after giving them a moment to take in their surroundings. 

But once they step out of the drugstore both Seungkwan and Mingyu stay rooted to their spots to look at what happened to the city where no humans had touched it for years. 

To put it simply; nature had truly and completely taken over. 

Buildings are trashed and crumbled down with trees and other plants growing through and against the walls. Cars are covered in mud and moss. 

It’s all just one giant wasteland but the air smells clean and it’s just… silent. No monotone voices announcing curfew through speakers all over the quarantine zone, no patrols, no _nothing._

It’s strangely peaceful. 

“Holy shit.” Mingyu gapes at the huge sky scrapers that look like they could cave in any second. 

“Everything’s so big!” Seungkwan smiles brightly and actually goes as far as jumping into a puddle in the middle of the street. He looks like a little kid and Mingyu can’t help but laugh at him.

“Guys.“ Jihoon urges, even though he sounds like he feels sorry for interrupting their moment, like he knows the feeling too well. „I know this is your first time and all, but we have to move. We have to walk as far as we can before the sun goes down.“ 

 

And hell, walk they do. 

It’s a good thing it’s nearing the end of winter, where it’s still cold but not cold enough to freeze your toes off. This would be a nightmare during summer, with the sun burning down on them and them not being able to carry around a lot of water. 

Seungkwan and Mingyu stare at anything and everything, like some kind of animals being led into the wild after being stuck in a zoo their entire lives. It’s just… the thought that they’re out here now, with the possibility to go _anywhere_ they want to. 

It’s tempting, dangerously so, and Mingyu does his best to keep that thought to himself.

He reminds himself that the quarantine zone is his home, that the military is where he belongs and that he owes them his life. It’s good within the borders. It’s safe. 

Nothing good happens out here in the open world.

“Jihoon?“ Seungkwan asks after a long time of silence. 

The man turns around to look at him and Mingyu notices how his hand is always hovering above his gun, ready to pull it should they cross something dangerous. „Yeah?“ 

“How many times have you been out here?“ 

Jihoon looks at him silently for a second before he answers. “This is about my eighth time. Why?“ 

Seungkwan licks his lips. “Have you ever thought about… you know, not coming back?“ 

“Not coming back?“ Jihoon gives him an almost incredulous look, like maybe Seungkwan’s starting to lose his mind, but it doesn’t disrupt him. 

The question even takes Mingyu by surprise though, who gives his best friend a questioning glance.

„Back to the quarantine zone. The military.“ Seungkwan explains. “I know there are groups out here. Survivors who live on their own. You could join them, couldn’t you?“ 

„That’s stupid and you know it.“ Jihoon huffs, shaking his head, almost like he’s disappointed. “Those… groups, they aren’t normal, Seungkwan.“ He says and turns to face him again. „The military, their rules and the life under their system provides you with a somewhat normal life. It keeps you sane. It keeps you _human_. People outside of it turn mad within months. How do you think they find food?“

“They hunt?“ Mingyu buts in and Jihoon doesn’t look at him but there’s a smile on his face, a little resentful.

“Some do. But you can’t hunt in the city. At least not— not for animals.“ Jihoon says and looks back to face the street they’re walking on. „When you’re hungry, you turn desperate. You eat… anything.“ 

Mingyu thinks about it for a moment. He knows what Jihoon means, but he always thought those stories were just rumours to scare them off, to make them not _want_ to go outside because of what’s lurking out here. “So… cannibalism, it’s actually a thing?“

Jihoon nods and Seungkwan turns a little pale. “They kill people to eat them. How insane is that? There’s only a handful of uninfected people left and they just…“ Jihoon continues and shakes his head. „I understand that some are mad at the military, and don’t agree with their ways. And I can—” He pauses and his next words take Mingyu by surprise. “I can understand where they’re coming from. But at the end of the day, it’s the only way to survive without losing the only humanity that’s left in us. If there are no rules, if there's no law, people turn into fucking animals. People out here, they’re not normal people anymore. You can’t trust them any more than those damn infected things. If you want to join _those_ groups, then go ahead guys. I won’t stop you.“ 

Mingyu is quiet for a moment. He agrees with everything Jihoon just said, but something about is unsettling. He can't put a finger on what it is.

Seungkwan nibbles on his lips. “What about the fireflies? They’re not cannibals.“ 

He sees how Jihoon’s shoulders tense at his question. “What the fuck are you implying?” He hisses back, and Seungkwan frowns at his sudden outburst.

“Jesus.” Mingyu scoffs. “He was just asking.” 

Jihoon shakes his head. “They may not be cannibals, but what they’re doing is foolish. They’re hunting ghosts. They’re fucking mad, too. Mad from the hope to put an end to all of this. To find a _cure._ There _is_ no fucking cure, everyone knows that.“ Jihoon takes a deep breath, rolling his shoulders like he’s tired from the subject.

“How do we know that though?“ Seungkwan asks. „That there isn’t… some kind of vaccine?“

„Why are you asking so many questions?“ Jihoon huffs. “Pay attention to your surroundings, Seungkwan.“

“I am.“ Seungkwan says, eyes darting around to find nothing but empty, dead streets. “You didn’t answer my question.“ 

“Why didn’t you ask Jiyong if you’re so curious?“ Jihoon’s voice is tight and Mingyu sees Seungkwan cower a little at the tone of Jihoon’s voice, and while he feels a little thrown off by Seungkwan’s questions too, he decides to help his friend out.

“Because he beat us up whenever we asked.“ Mingyu grumbles. Seungkwan shoots him a thankful look, remembering all those times Jiyong slapped them across the face for " _asking questions only idiots would ask"._

„It’s been fifteen fucking years.“ Jihoon says quietly after they walk in silence for a few minutes. “If there was a cure, we would’ve found it by now. People are still dying and the number of dead and infected are outnumbering us by millions. There is no cure and there isn’t a vaccine either. You better get that into your thick skulls as fast as possible.“ 

Mingyu tells Seungkwan to stay quiet and not ask so many questions, which doesn’t sit too well with him but he shuts his mouth and silently keeps walking on Mingyu’s side.

“Why don’t we loot up?“ Mingyu asks after a while.

“We’ll loot up once we start running out.“ Jihoon answers. “Our bags are too heavy.“ 

“But there’s like… canned food everywhere. We barely have any food with us.“ 

“Mingyu.“ Jihoon stops walking and turns around, staring Mingyu down despite the difference in height. “I’m sorry to say this but you two are talking way too fucking much. You can’t afford to be careless out here like you’re used to. You look away one second and an infected jumps at you from around a corner. Do you get that? You need to learn to be silent. Stop being a distraction and putting us in danger.“ 

They stare at each other for a moment, Jihoon’s already got lines of frustration on his forehead and Mingyu’s unintentionally squeezing his fists at his side, trying to hold back his own words to defend himself because Jihoon’s lashing out on him for no reason.

There’s a hand on his back, Seungkwan rubbing it comfortingly. “Sorry. That was one me.“ 

It reminds him of all the times Mingyu got kicked out of practice, losing his temper too quickly. 

_"You need to learn to control your anger, you’ll never make it out there if you’re going to lose control like this."_

He tries to think of Jiyong’s words, knows he’s right, he knows it but it’s hard to control his anger. It flares up inside his chest like a flame, something that needs to get out through harsh words. It used to be Seungkwan, the victim of Mingyu’s outbursts, but through the years Mingyu has gotten better at controlling himself, especially after making Seungkwan cry a few years back after he said some hurtful things he didn’t mean at all.

“You okay?“ Seungkwan whispers, bringing his hand down to take Mingyu’s into his own. 

Mingyu sighs. He hates himself for being like this, especially in such a situation where, as Jihoon has said; it could get them killed. He looks up to smile at his best friend, squeezing his hand back. “Sorry.“ 

“Nothing to apologize for.“ Seungkwan grins and tugs at his hand, urging them to move again. 

“I didn’t mean to yell at you Mingyu.“ Jihoon speaks then. 

“No it’s fine.” Mingyu forces himself to say. “Someone needs to put us in our place.“ 

“Mingyu—“

“Seriously, it’s fine. Jiyong would’ve taught us a lesson by now so this is nothing compared to him.“ He looks up and smiles, just to get his point across. Jihoon doesn’t look too convinced but he smiles back and that’s that. 

 

 

 

They’ve been walking for roughly three hours now without crossing paths with anyone or anything and honestly, Mingyu knows he should be glad but he didn’t imagine the outside to be like this. 

This eery silence is almost too much. 

It’s when he wants to open his mouth when he hears a crunching sound that didn’t come from them. 

“Did you hear that?“ Mingyu asks, stops walking to listen closer. 

The other two stop walking too, listening to nothing but silence. 

“What is it?“ Seungkwan asks. 

“I heard something.“ 

“It’s probably nothing—“

A loud wail interrupts Seungkwan and Mingyu can see the younger’s eyes widen, sees how Jihoon’s hand shoots to his gun, aiming it at something Mingyu has yet to catch sight of. 

Everything happens so fucking fast.

He hears a gurgling noise, a screech, and just as he’s about to turn around someone else shouts „Watch out!“ and then there’s a gun shot and then— silence. 

Mingyu has his gun ready, heart racing and blood pumping wildly once he tries to see what the hell just happened but there’s nothing. It’s completely silent and Seungkwan takes a step closer to him from where Mingyu has his back to him, trying to shield the younger with his body. 

There, only a few feet away from them, lies a corpse. 

It’s leg is still twitching, blood pooling around it.

And that right there, is the first infected Mingyu has laid his eyes on. 

It looks just as they were described to him; body of a human, face and head split apart by the fungus growing inside the brain and out of the skull. 

His heart stops for a second, because it looks so much like a non-infected human being and… and… _fuck_ — 

Mingyu realizes that he was foolishly hoping these things would look like those zombies Jimin from the upper ranks used to show them in books and movies, but they don’t. 

This thing used to be a man or woman, someone who had a family, hopes and dreams and now they just got killed like their life doesn’t matter anymore because they carry that damn virus inside of them. 

“Holy fucking shit.“ Seungkwan whispers and Mingyu can feel him curl his fingers into his sweater, shaking a little. 

“Be quiet.“ Jihoon says, something laced within his voice, like he’s wary of something and he keeps turning in circles, his gun aimed at nothing but air. 

“Who the fuck shot it?“ Mingyu gulps and takes a step back, the gun in his hands shaking a bit.

_“I did_.“

They all jump at the stranger’s voice, hands automatically aiming their guns into the direction of the voice before their bodies do and there he is; a guy around their age with a shotgun balanced over his shoulders, holding on to it on each end with his blood stained hands. 

“Who are you?“ Jihoon asks, kicking at Mingyu’s leg with his boot to stop him when the latter cocks his gun.

The stranger grins at Mingyu and he in return does something close to a snarl, held back by Seungkwan’s hand still curled into the hem of his shirt. 

“I could ask you the same.“ The guy says and Mingyu now looks him up and down, takes in his battered clothes, holes and slices in the fabric that look like they’re the result of knives and other things slicing through. There’s dark brown stains everywhere and Mingyu’s not sure how much of it is from dirt and not from dried blood. 

“Stay back or we will shoot you.“ Jihoon says and now the guy laughs despite having three loaded guns aiming at his head. 

“I don’t think so.“ 

And before either of them can question what he means, Mingyu feels someone grabbing him from behind and then something sharp digging into his throat. „I’d drop that gun if I were you.“ Someone mumbles into his ear. He turns his head and sees Seungkwan, the gun already by his feet and his arms held back by another guy. 

vDrop the fucking guns if you know what’s good for you.“ The guy in front of them says and it takes a few seconds until Jihoon does as he’s told. „Same for you.“ He says with a tilt of his head in Mingyu’s direction.

The blade digs some more into his throat, cutting into the skin. Mingyu reluctantly drops the gun.

“Alright.“ The guy speaks, coming closer. “Now I want you tell me who you are and why I shouldn’t let my friends slit your friends' throats.“ 

At first Mingyu wants to laugh, because that guy is stupid; it’s obvious they’re military but then he remembers that they’re not wearing their uniforms, mostly as not to attract unwanted attention. 

Military isn’t exactly highly thought of in the outskirts. They’d be shot down without hesitation. 

They keep silent and the guy sighs. “Your clothes are way too fucking clean.“ 

From the corner of his eye Mingyu can see how Jihoon tenses for a moment. 

“I hope you’re just travelling through, because otherwise I’ll have to kill you.“ He speaks and there must be something on their faces, something that gives them away because the one holding Seungkwan speaks up next.

“They’re military, Soonyoung. Quit playing.“ He spits and Mingyu turns his head when he hears the faint sound Seungkwan makes, sees some redness around the blade pressing into his friend’s skin.

“Stop that!“ He grunts. It hurts to talk with the blade pressing on top of his Adam’s apple. “Don’t fucking hurt him!“ 

“But you’re a military boy. We ought to kill you without a second thought.“ The guy who supposedly is Soonyoung says. He tilts his head, staring into Mingyu’s eyes. “That’s what you guys do. Shoot everyone down who doesn’t dance to your fucking tune.“ 

Jihoon makes a distressed sound. “No.“ 

„No?“ Soonyoung asks, looking at him now. “So you don’t kill us in the outskirts like we’re nothing but fucking infected?“ 

“We don’t—“ Jihoon starts, faltering when Soonyoung cocks the gun he now has aimed at Jihoon's forehead. “We don’t kill anyone unless you trespass into our quarantine zones. Not when you don’t attack us.“ 

Soonyoung smirks, but it’s bitter and filled with hatred. “You’re a fucking dirty liar.“ 

“Dude“ The guy behind Mingyu speaks up. “We can’t be in the open like this. We need to get going. What’s it gonna be?“ He asks, pushing at Mingyu with his shoulder. Mingyu pushes back harder in annoyance but stops when the knife digs deeper into his already bleeding skin. 

“Let’s take ‘em with us. Seungcheol will decide what happens to them.” Soonyoung nods his head towards the weapons on the ground. He then fixes his gaze on Jihoon. “Take their guns.”

 

 

 

“This is _not_ what I fucking expected.” Seungkwan hisses, stumbling over his feet when the guy behind him pushes him to keep walking. “We’ve been out here for a few measly hours and we’re already being kidnapped.” 

Mingyu grits his teeth together, feeling the muzzle of a gun being pressed right between his shoulder blades. 

They’re being lead through dark alleys, sidestepping neatly placed and expertly hidden traps that Mingyu guesses were set by the group of guys that are currently holding them at gun-point. 

“Who are the traps for?” Seungkwan asks, not being able to keep silent as always. Mingyu carefully glances to his side; he’s had his eyes on the guy behind Seungkwan all the time anyway but he’s not sure what to make of him.  He _seems_ somewhat more calm than the rest but Mingyu knows better than to jump to silly conclusions when it could easily cost them their lives. 

The guy stares at Seungkwan’s back for a second and ignores the glare from Soonyoung when he answers. “Infected.”

“ _Just_ infected?” Mingyu mutters.

This makes him smirk, the same, creepy smirk Soonyoung’s had on his face before. “Military too.”

“Glad we’re welcome here, then.” Seungkwan mutters and Mingyu doesn’t miss the way his voice shakes despite him trying to keep the atmosphere light. 

“Seungkwan, enough.” Jihoon grunts.

Soonyoung stops walking at a dead end in a tight passage between two brick buildings. He pulls the strap of his rifle over his shoulders and grips the handle of the heavy looking garbage bin. There’s an opening behind it in the wall and Mingyu watches Soonyoung pull the garbage bin back in front of it once they’re inside. 

There’s nothing inside, it’s dark and cold, random objects lying on the ground together with all the dirt and debris. It looks like this might’ve been an office a long time ago, but Mingyu can’t be sure. 

They’re being pushed through a bigger door which Soonyoung surprisingly opens with a key and once they’re inside, the atmosphere instantly changes. It’s warmer, and there’s light. 

And voices. 

They stop once their heavy boots give away their arrival and a male voice shouts “Who’s there?” 

“It’s us!” Soonyoung shouts back, pulling away heavy curtains in front of another opening in the wall to reveal two people standing in the room. 

“We’ve got visitors.” Soonyoung smirks at Mingyu and the others when the new guy inside starts to approach them. “They’re military. Found them roaming around in the middle of the blue zone.” 

The new guy looks them up and down once and Mingyu immediately has a feeling that he’s the leader of whatever strange group this is. 

“This one looks like he’s still a kid. We thought we’d let you decide what to do with them.” The one holding Seungkwan speaks up.

“I’m fucking nineteen!” Seungkwan hisses, which makes the guy scoff and grip Seungkwan’s hands harder behind his back. 

“What were you doing in this sector of the city?” The leader asks, his eyes focused on Jihoon. “Military doesn’t come here unless they need something.” 

“We’re not looking for trouble.” Jihoon calmly answers. “These two are on their first patrol, and the blue zone was on our way.” 

“The blue zone is our territory.” The leader answers. “But I suppose the likes of you don’t really give a damn about that, do you?” 

“We wouldn’t have trespassed if we’d been aware of that.” Jihoon looks like he’s starting to get impatient. 

The leader doesn’t answer for a while, his eyes flickering over each of their faces one by one. 

“Seungcheol.” A girl appears behind the guy’s back, gazing at them curiously. “They don’t look like they mean any harm. Don’t take your anger out on them, okay?”

Soonyoung makes an angry sound. “They fucking killed Samuel—“

“Soonyoung.” The one the girl addressed as Seungcheol interrupts him. “We could need them.”

“Need us for _what_?” 

“You.” He looks back at Jihoon. “Since you’re a soldier, you must know about the fireflies and their whereabouts.” 

“Maybe.” Jihoon gives him a wary look. 

“We need to drop some cargo off. There’s a group of researchers somewhere in Adrohaw and we have to find them, as fast as possible.”

Adrohaw, that’s one of their stops.

“What the hell do you want with the fireflies?” Mingyu buts in.

“I don’t think you’re in any position to ask questions, soldier boy.” Soonyoung grunts and looks like he’s about to lose his patience when Jihoon shoots him an unimpressed glare. “This is not an invitation to help us. It’s either you help us, or we’ll put a bullet through your worthless heads.” 

Jihoon narrows his eyes and Mingyu can just see the wheels turning in his genius head for three tense seconds before he looks up at Seungcheol again. “How do I know you won’t kill us once we get there?” 

“You’ll just have to trust me.” Seungcheol tilts his head to the side with a strange smile.

“I don’t trust you guys one fucking bit.” 

“I’m a man of my words, okay? If you help us, I promise I will let you and your friends go. Unharmed.” 

Jihoon and him stare each other down for what seems like forever when Jihoon finally gives a curt nod of his head. “I want our guns back first.”

“No way—“ Soonyoung starts to protest again but Seungcheol nods his head.

“You can have them back.” 

“What about these two?” The one gripping Mingyu’s hands asks. 

“We don’t need them.” Soonyoung speaks up again. “We got enough mouths to feed as it is—“

“No fucking way.” Jihoon interrupts, his jaw set and eyes ablaze. “If you touch either of them I’m not losing a single word about the fireflies and where they are.” 

“Who the hell are you threatening here you fucking dwarf?“ Soonyoung lifts his gun and points it at Jihoon’s head.

“Guys, calm down.” Seungcheol sighs and points at the area behind him. It looks like a living room, couches, coffee table, books, magazines, mundane every day objects scattered over the surfaces. There are mattresses lying here and there and the walls are lined with shelves full of supplies, mostly canned food. “Let’s sit down and talk.” 

 

 

They finally stop treating Mingyu and Seungkwan like hostages. They both sit down on a chair meant for one person but they make it work either way; contrary to Mingyu’s expectations, Seungkwan doesn’t seem scared. 

He looks excited more than anything. 

Mingyu eyes each person in the room, counting five heads in total. Then he looks further and spots the passed out guy in the corner. His torso is tied to the pillar with thick ropes, his face littered with bruises and caked blood sticking to his nose and cheeks. 

He looks barely alive and Mingyu has to forcefully peel his eyes away from him.

“I’m Seungcheol.” The guy is now sitting on the other side of the coffee table, and if Mingyu can look past the fact that this bunch was trying to kill them a moment ago, he looks somewhat friendly. “I’m the oldest among us, the leader, if you will.”

“So you’re what exactly, bandits?” Jihoon asks. 

“No."

“Hunters?” Jihoon’s eyes narrows further, a displeased frown appearing on his face. 

“We’re survivors. _That’s_ what we are.” Seungcheol raises his eyebrows at him. “We’re not like those pigs. We’re not killing innocent people.”

“You were trying to kill _us_.” Mingyu buts in. 

“Yeah, but you’re not exactly innocent, are you?” One of the other guys standing behind Seungcheol scoffs, the one with several piercings in both his ears. His hair is pulled up into a small bun, the sides shaved neatly, not really a hair style Mingyu has seen before. 

Mingyu and him make eye contact for one second which makes him twirl the butterfly knife around in his hand, an amused glint in his eyes.

“Cut it out, Hao.” Seungcheol mutters once he sees the defensive glare in Mingyu’s eyes. He turns back to Jihoon with a serious look on his face. “We have a bit of a history with military. They murdered someone from our group. I guess you can understand why we’re not exactly very fond of your kind.” 

“The military doesn’t kill anyone unless they deserve it—“ Jihoon starts. 

“You fucking asshole, I’m gonna slit your throat—“

“Soonyoung, stop it.” The girl from before speaks up again with an exasperated sigh. 

Seungcheol looks like he’s forcing himself to be kind to them and it rubs Mingyu the wrong way, makes him be more attentive of his facial expressions and words. “As I said; we need to find the fireflies, the group of researchers in Adrohaw, but that’s all we know concerning their whereabouts.” 

Jihoon nods his head. “I don’t know about any researchers, but I know about a handful of fireflies residing there. They’ve been laying low though so I’m not sure if they’re still there.”

“They have to be.” Seungcheol sighs. “We have something they want.”

“Why the hell would we help the fireflies?” Jihoon asks. “Why would _you_?”

“Because what they need is something that’ll benefit all of us.” 

“Stop beating around the bush.” Jihoon sneers. “ _What_ do they need?” 

Seungcheol leans a bit to the side to look over their shoulders, pointing at the passed out guy in the corner. “Him.” 

 

 

 

“We’ll leave at sunrise. Nayoung’s prepared you a place to sleep back there.” Seungcheol points to a corner where two mattresses are pushed together. Mingyu gives him a wary look which Seungcheol doesn’t miss. “Look, I know we only met, but I promise you we won’t try anything. Don’t worry about Soonyoung either, he’ll come around.” 

Seungkwan sighs as he sits down next to Mingyu on the mattress later. The three of them quietly watch the others eat where they’re seated in a circle on the mismatched chairs and couches in the middle of the hall.

“Do you trust them?” Mingyu asks Jihoon, who’s been pretty quiet after Seungcheol left them alone to rest. 

Jihoon cleans the gun in his hand with the hem of his shirt, his eyes focused mostly on Seungcheol. “No.” 

“Yeah. Me neither.” Mingyu mutters, watching how the one Seungcheol called Hao laughs about something the other guy with the black hair said.

“I trust them.” Seungkwan shrugs and Mingyu gives him an amused look. 

“You trust everyone.” 

The girl called Nayoung approaches them with a pot in her hands after some time. She places some spoons on the floor in front of them as well before lowering the pot. “It’s spam stew.”

None of them touch it and Nayoung rolls her eyes, grabbing one spoon to eat some of the steaming food. “It’s not poisoned, okay? Where the hell would we find anything to poison you with anyway?” She forcefully hands Seungkwan the spoon. “I know it’s damn hard to trust people these days, but I give you my word that we’re not dangerous unless you give us a reason to be.”

Her dark eyes find Mingyu’s and they exchange a curios look, Mingyu’s eyes flickering over her long brown hair which she has tied up in a messy pony tail. He wonders if Seungkwan and Jihoon find her pretty as well or if it’s just him. 

They probably don’t, because they need to be alert and they’re on an important mission and pretty girls definitely aren’t part of that mission.

They start eating eventually and Seungkwan carelessly starts chatting with Nayoung about their lives, how they managed to survive for so long, how many infected they've killed, how they met. 

Mingyu is listening to her - because it’s interesting to hear how people outside of quarantine zones have managed to survive on their own - but it’s only with half an ear, because his eyes keep going back to the passed out guy in the corner. 

“What’s with him?” He wants to know. 

Nayoung looks over her shoulder, letting out a heavy sigh. “We found him a couple of days ago. He was stealing food from us.”

“Why are you keeping him tied up?” Jihoon asks. 

“Because he tried to escape.” Nayoung says after a beat of silence adds “And because he’s infected.” 

All three of them kind of freeze.

“ _Infected?!_ ” Jihoon’s hand goes to grab his gun but Nayoung stops him, gripping his arm with a warning look on her face. 

“No using weapons in here, got it?” Her voice leaves no room for discussion. 

“You have a guy in here who might turn into one of them any minute! Are you guys out of your minds?!” Mingyu growls. Back in the quarantine zone the military kills anyone who fails the check-ups, who shows any kind of signs of infection. “You have to kill him!”

“He’s immune.” 

Mingyu opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. 

“Bullshit.” Jihoon scoffs. “There’s no such thing as immunity, if there was we would know by now—“

“We didn’t believe at first either, that’s why we’ve been keeping him tied up, in case he turns. But it’s been almost three days.” She looks back at the guy and shakes her head. “Everyone turns within forty-eight hours. He already had the bite when we found him. Said it was a week old but that’s about all we could get out of him. The only reason we didn’t kill him was because Seungcheol wanted to find out if he was telling the truth.” 

“That— That can’t be true.” Jihoon shakes his head. “No one is immune. No one survives a bite.” 

“It’s fine. You don’t have to believe me. You’ll see it yourself.” Nayoung shrugs her shoulders.

“Is that why you’re taking him to the fireflies?” Seungkwan slowly asks. “Are they— Those guys are still looking for a cure?” 

Nayoung nods, a thoughtful look on her face. “We know some fireflies. They’re still doing it. Still experimenting on animals and all of that.”

 

They fall into a moment of silence, all of them trying to wrap their minds around the fact that there— that there might be a _cure._

Mingyu can’t believe it. He simply can’t believe that after all those years, after all those horrible deaths and all the suffering everyone went through, that there might be a possibility to put an end to all of it. 

Just because of one single guy. 

Mingyu looks back at him and for a fraction of a second, he feels bad for him. He shakes it off as quickly as it came. “We’re not doing it. Jihoon, we’re not smuggling an infected guy! Jiyong would rip our head’s off.” 

“But Jiyong isn’t here.” Seungkwan suddenly says, turning around to meet Mingyu’s flaming gaze with a strange kind of calmness in them that Mingyu hasn’t ever seen before. 

“Mingyu is right, though.” Jihoon shakes his head, frowning at Seungkwan. “As soldiers it is our duty to follow our commands, and the very first one is to kill anyone who’s showing signs of having the infection.”

“He isn’t showing any signs though.” Seungkwan licks his lips. “We don’t have any detectors here, so we have to wait and see if he turns or not.”

"They said he was bitten.” Mingyu grits his teeth together, not understanding why Seungkwan is acting like this all of a sudden. “What more proof do you need?” 

Seungkwan completely ignores him. “Why is his face like that?” He points at his own face, where there are bruises and cuts on the guy’s skin. 

“He’s refusing to talk.” Is all Nayoung says. “Don’t look at me like that. He would’ve been dead by now if he got into the hands of another group out there. _Especially_ soldiers.” She gives them a pointed look.

“Oh, he’s waking up!” Seungkwan points out and he’s scrambling to his feet before Mingyu can stop him. 

“Hey, wait—“ Nayoung goes after him and Mingyu doesn’t waste another second to follow them. 

Before Seungkwan can reach the guy, Soonyoung is already standing next to him, pointing the muzzle of his gun against the guy’s forehead. 

“You finally awake?” He mutters. 

The guy looks like he doesn’t even have the strength to speak, barely able to keep his eyes open. His lips are cracked and Mingyu can tell that he must be parched, his cheekbones standing out alarmingly. He wonders if they’ve been starving him as well.

“He needs water.” Nayoung speaks up. Mingyu grips Seungkwan’s arm, pulling him slightly behind his own frame.

“He doesn’t get shit until he talks.” Soonyoung kneels down and grips the boy’s chin harshly, pulling his face up to make him meet his eyes. “Are you going to be a good boy and play along or do we need a retake of what happened yesterday?” 

Mingyu is surprised at the resistance in the boy’s eyes when he looks up at Soonyoung’s face. 

“You’re a little shit, aren’t you. I’m gonna fucking make you talk.” Soonyoung snarls, pulling his hand back to strike  the guy across the face. The sound echoes through the hall, but the guy doesn’t react to the punch at all. No grunt of pain, no grimace. He turns his head back around to face Soonyoung again, pearls of blood glistening on the re-opened cut on his cheek. 

“Hey.” Seungkwan speaks, his voice shaking a bit behind Mingyu’s shoulder. “Is this really necessary?”

“Stay out of it, Seungkwan.” Jihoon mutters. “This isn’t our business.” He turns around and walks back to their beds. Mingyu’s always admired Jihoon for that; how he can simply turn off the human side in him, how he can brush off guilt and ignore others’ suffering if it doesn’t concern him. 

Most people are like that though, just like Soonyoung and Jihoon, or maybe the entire group in this hall; their humanity has left when humans started killing off each other, one by one, without blinking an eye.

“Mingyu, this isn’t right, you know it.” Seungkwan whispers. “They’re beating up an innocent, defenceless person!”

“You don’t know if he’s innocent. He’s infected. He’s one of them.” Mingyu mutters, trying not to flinch when Soonyoung stands up and rams his foot into the guy’s stomach. Seungcheol finally joins the scene and pulls Soonyoung away by his shoulders.

He kneels down in front of the guy and sighs. “Look, we don’t want to hurt you any further. Just tell us who you are and what— what exactly you are. It’s been three days and you still haven’t turned. What the hell’s up with that?"

“ _Fuck you_.” 

It’s a new voice, cracking, deep and rough and Mingyu’s head snaps up just in time to see Soonyoung kick the guy in the stomach again, making him drop his head with a pained grunt.

“Stop it!” Seungkwan stalks towards them and grips Soonyoung’s arm who’s obviously still in fighting mode because he turns on his heels and is about to strike Seungkwan too. He’s not fast enough; Mingyu pushes him away by his chest, standing in front of his best friend protectively. 

“Try touching him one more time and I’ll rip your fucking head off.” Mingyu growls, trying not to let it get to him when Soonyoung smirks provocatively. 

“Let’s all just calm down!” Nayoung groans and stands between Mingyu and Soonyoung with an annoyed expression on her face. “Stop behaving like a bunch of cavemen for fuck’s sake!” 

“Tell that your people!” Seungkwan mutters. “You don’t even know if this guy has done anything wrong, yet you’re torturing him!” 

Mingyu gives him an incredulous look. It’s like he’s talking about the military. The military is cruel in their ways, killing people left and right without showing mercy and Seungkwan’s never spoken up against it before. 

“He would be talking if he was innocent!” Soonyoung shakes his head. “Why else would he refuse to give us answers?”  


“Let me—” Seungkwan gently pushes Mingyu out of the way. “Let me try to talk to him. I’ll get you your answers, just… just stop hurting him.” 

“Seungkwan, fucking stop! This isn’t—“ Mingyu starts but Seungcheol cuts him off. 

“Okay.” He says. “Give it a try.” 

Soonyoung is gaping just as much as Mingyu is. “What the fuck? Seungcheol, are you kidding?!” 

“We’ve been trying to get him to talk for days with no luck. This can’t hurt, so let him try.” Seungcheol gives Soonyoung a pointed look, and the latter looks like he’s going to resist but he ends up following their leader with a shake of his head and a swear muttered under his breath.

“He won’t talk.” Nayoung shakes her head, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “We’ve tried being nice to him. He won’t open his mouth.” 

“We’ll see.” Seungkwan says, not about to back down. 

Nayoung sighs and tilts her head to both sides, her bones cracking. “If you say so. Try to get some sleep in anyway.” She tells them before she leaves them alone as well. “It’s going to be quite a long march tomorrow.” 

They’re left alone with the guy and Mingyu’s hand is on his gun the whole time, not trusting the man one bit. Seungkwan leaves to grab his bag and comes back, scowling at Mingyu’s expression and the hand on his gun. 

“Is this necessary?”

“He’s infected, so yes, it fucking is.” Mingyu shakes his head. “You’re driving me mad, do you know that?”

Seungkwan rolls his eyes and crouches down in front of the guy. He unzips his bag, pulling out a bottle of water and the first aid kit Jihoon equipped them with. 

“I’m going to clean your wounds.” He says, lifting his hands to the man’s face who flinches away from the touch with a hard look on his face. 

“Seungkwan, don’t touch him.” Mingyu sighs, feeling something twitch in his chest when the guy’s eyes flicker up to meet Mingyu’s. “What is with you? He’s infected. We have to kill him before it’s too late—“

“No, what’s with _you_?” Seungkwan grits out. “We’re not one of them. We’re not like the other soldiers.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Seungkwan pauses, his shoulders tensing. “I’m saying I’m not going to go back.”

“What?” Mingyu gapes at him, nearly dropping the gun in his hands. “Are you even listening to your self?”

Seungkwan doesn’t answer, instead turns back to face the other guy again. “I want to help, okay? I swear I’m not going to hurt you. We don’t belong to them.” 

Seungkwan tries again, and when the guy stops pressing himself into the pillar like it’s going to get him away from them, he very slowly starts dabbing at the first cut on the guy’s face. He smiles and Mingyu wonders for the nth time in his life how Seungkwan managed to stay so pure and kind in a fucked up world like this. “See? I don’t mean any harm.” 

Seungkwan works in silence for the first few minutes and the guy follows his every movement with his dark eyes, like he’s expecting Seungkwan to hurt him any second. 

“My name is Seungkwan.” He slowly introduces himself. “This is my best friend, Mingyu.” He points at Mingyu and Mingyu nearly starts laughing hysterically because _what the fuck,_ Seungkwan? 

What is he doing, having a freaking icebreaker session here while Mingyu is busy making sure that guy doesn’t turn into a goddamn infected in front of their eyes?

They make eye contact again and judging by the dark look in the boy’s eyes, he doesn’t feel too fond about Mingyu either. “We’re— We’re from a quarantine zone. Southglen? Does that tell you something? Probably not if you’re not from around here. We were out here on our first patrol; the first time we went outside, and well, we kind of got into this situation now. We’re captives too, in a way.” He chuckles. 

The guy doesn’t answer but his eyes are focused on Seungkwan, indicating that he’s listening to him. He squints his eyes shut when Seungkwan dabs some antiseptic on one of the cuts. 

“Are you…” Seungkwan stops his movements, nervously licking his lips. “You really got bitten a week ago?” 

Mingyu doesn’t expect the guy to answer but to his surprise he nods his head. One, quick nod Mingyu might’ve missed if he would’ve blinked right then.

“Holy shit.” Seungkwan mutters, picking up a new cotton ball. “I didn’t think that was possible. That— That changes _everything_ … So the fireflies weren’t chasing ghosts all those years."

The guy freezes at the mention of the fireflies and he turns his head, stopping Seungkwan from touching him. Mingyu sees him clench his jaw. 

“I see.” Seungkwan mumbles. “You’re not talking to them because you don’t want them to deliver you to the fireflies, isn’t that so?” 

Again, no answer. 

“I don’t blame you.” Seungkwan sits back on his heels, dropping the blood stained cotton dabs on the ground. “We’re not very fond of the fireflies either, you know? Or at least we’re not supposed to be.” His eyes flicker to Mingyu who simply shakes his head in disbelief, not able to wrap his mind around the fact that his best friend might’ve been an opponent of the military all this time without anyone knowing. 

The guy looks back at Seungkwan again, and after a long moment of hesitation, opens his mouth. “Wonwoo.” 

His voice cracks, rough and slightly slurred since the guy doesn’t seem to have much strength left in his body.

Seungkwan blinks at him in surprise, opening and closing his mouth like a fish for a few seconds. “Wonwoo? I-Is that your name?”

He nods his head, eyes warily moving to Mingyu’s face.

“Wonwoo. That sounds cool. It’s nice to meet you.” Seungkwan makes himself comfortable in front of the boy. “I swear I’m just… asking out of curiosity.” He hesitates again, eyes flickering over Wonwoo’s features. “Is it true? Are you… you know, _immune_?” 

Wonwoo stares at Seungkwan and his eyes flicker over to Mingyu’s and Mingyu doesn’t know what he expects to happen; it’s like he’s waiting for the guy to turn into a zombie right before his eyes. 

“It’s alright. Mingyu is okay, I promise. We’ve been friends since— well, forever, kind of.” Seungkwan gives Wonwoo an encouraging smile. 

“It’s what they say.” Wonwoo starts speaking after a short moment of hesitation, his voice rumbling through Mingyu’s chest. Wonwoo licks his cracked lips and Mingyu can’t help but think about how thirsty he must be. 

“That’s so cool!” Seungkwan whisper shouts. “They might find a cure, they might be able to put an end to this—“

“No.” Wonwoo interrupts. “There’s a reason they tied me up. I don’t want to go to the fireflies and I don’t want them to experiment on me like I’m some kind of fucking lab rat.” 

“Isn’t that a bit selfish?” Mingyu finds himself asking without thinking. Both Wonwoo and Seungkwan look up at him but it’s the subtle flame in Wonwoo’s dark eyes Mingyu focuses on. “You think your life’s worth more than everyone who’s left on this planet?” 

“I didn’t say that.” Wonwoo grits his teeth together, his glare heavy and burning on Mingyu’s face. “But it’s not my fault the world has ended.” 

“You’re a fucking coward then.” Mingyu scoffs.

“Gyu, stop it.” Seungkwan sighs, eyes flickering between him and Wonwoo who are still busy staring each other down. 

Wonwoo looks like he’d go for Mingyu’s throat if he wasn’t tied up.

“Aren’t you guys part of the military?” Wonwoo finally directs his gaze towards Seungkwan again. “Aren’t you supposed to kill the fireflies? Why are you helping these assholes?” 

“We’re not like other soldiers—” Seungkwan starts but Mingyu harshly interrupts him before he can say more things to betray their loyalty towards the military.

“We’re not helping anyone. We just want to make sure you’re dead if you don’t turn out to be immune after all.” Mingyu says, Wonwoo’s eyes turning ice cold where they’re locked with Mingyu’s.

Seungkwan stays silent for a while before clearing his throat. “Are you on your own?” He asks. “They said they caught you stealing their food. Were you stealing for your group?” 

“I’m on my own.” Is all Wonwoo says and the way clenches his jaw, he doesn’t want to elaborate. 

“Well” Seungkwan clears his throat. “Not anymore, right? _We_ can be your friends now.” 

Wonwoo lifts his head and gives Seungkwan a strange look, his eyes looking as hopeless as the entire situation he’s in right now. “You’re soldiers. Screw your friendship.” 

If there’s one thing you should know about Seungkwan, it’s that his heart is way too sensitive to survive in a world like this. Mingyu doesn’t have to see his face to know that Wonwoo’s reaction hurt him. 

Seungkwan quietly starts to collect his things. “I’m sorry. I would help you if I could.” He says and stands up. “I’ll make sure they don’t treat you like this anymore.” 

“I don’t need your help.” Wonwoo snaps. 

Mingyu wants to punch him in the face but Seungkwan, being the kind soul he is, opens up the water bottle and offers it to Wonwoo who doesn’t even bother looking in his direction and Mingyu just snaps. 

The day’s been too long, he’s tired and frustrated, so he snatches the plastic bottle from Seungkwan’s hands, squats down in front of Wonwoo and grips his chin harshly to make the guy face him. 

It goes against his nature, touching an infected. Jiyong would beat his ass for not taking him down instantly, but Seungkwan gives him a pleading look, and Mingyu’s never been able to deny him anything. 

If it wasn’t for Seungkwan, he would’ve killed the guy, no questions asked. 

“Don’t fucking treat him like that. He helped you.” Mingyu whispers, lifting his eyes to meet Wonwoo’s hard gaze. He presses the bottle against Wonwoo’s lips who in return gulps heavily, clearly trying to resist. “You should be glad I haven’t put a bullet through your head already.”

“What the fuck are you waiting for?” Wonwoo croaks. “I’m going to die either way, so just do it.”

Mingyu ignores his words and tilts the bottle. He knows that he must be completely parched because Wonwoo looks almost like he’s in pain, still trying to resist the water. “I’m not going to offer again, and they” he glances to the others on the other side of the hall “definitely won’t either. _Drink_.”

And after another tense moment of them glaring each other down, Wonwoo weakly opens his mouth, and once his lips close around the opening of the bottle, he empties it in one single go. It dribbles down his chin, and a pained whimper leaves his throat when Mingyu takes the empty bottle away. 

The sound tugs at Mingyu’s heartstrings, and the feeling takes him by such surprise he lets go of Wonwoo’s chin with a bit too much force given how hurt the guy already is.

Wonwoo looks like he might die any second and Mingyu doubts anyone out there would even care and the thought stirs something up inside his chest, something he tries to ignore as best as he can. 

He screws the cap back on and slowly lifts his eyes, looks at Wonwoo’s bruised face and he has so many damn questions but he knows he can’t ask. He doesn’t care about this guy’s anything; knowing too much means he will start to feel sorry for him, like Seungkwan clearly already does. 

 

 

Later when he’s lying on the cold mattress with Seungkwan next to him, he listens to the foreign sounds outside and for the first time in fourteen years, it finally sinks in that they’re actually outside.

There are no guards keeping them safe, there are no borders keeping the infected and killers out. 

“Did you mean what you said earlier?” Mingyu whispers, knowing that Seungkwan is still awake because his breathing hasn’t evened out yet. 

“What part?”

“About not going back.”

There’s a pause, a deep inhale before Seungkwan turns on his side to face Mingyu. “Yes.”

Mingyu’s jaw tightens, a wave of anger and the feeling of betrayal washing over him. They’ve known each other forever. Seungkwan’s the only person on this planet Mingyu would trust with his life, and he always thought the feeling was mutual.

But he must’ve been wrong, because why else would Seungkwan have kept such a crucial thought to himself all this time? 

He didn’t trust Mingyu enough to tell him.

“How long have you been thinking about it?”

Seungkwan blinks at him, sadness pooling in his otherwise bright eyes. “Do you remember how Jiyong made us watch them execute those children in the middle of the market last year?” 

Of course Mingyu remembers. 

Three kids, not older than nine, were caught sneaking out of the quarantine zone after curfew. 

Anyone who tries to sneak out or stays outside the walls after curfew gets prosecuted, and once it happens three times they get punished by death.

The soldiers pushed the kids to the ground in the middle of the busy market, and on the count of three - together with the scared cries of the kids - they shot them in the head for everyone in the quarantine zone to see.

Jiyong made them watch the execution to “ _toughen them up”._

Mingyu remembers Seungkwan crying into his shoulder the whole night after it happened. 

So maybe it isn’t even Seungkwan’s fault and it’s Mingyu’s instead. 

Because Mingyu brushed it off as Seungkwan still being too sensitive to those kind of things instead of thinking a bit further.

That maybe Seungkwan's view on things was staring to change, that he was starting to disagree with the military’s ways.

“Why— Why didn’t you tell me?” Mingyu whispers, trying not to sound as hurt and confused as he suddenly feels. 

Seungkwan shrugs, nibbling on his lip. “I didn’t think you would understand. You were— You _are_ a die-hard soldier, Mingyu. I stopped wanting to be one a long time ago and let’s be honest. I never was a soldier to begin with.” 

Mingyu gulps heavily. “So what, you thought I would rat you out?” He turns to face his best friend. “Did you think I would abandon you?” 

“No.” Seungkwan sighs. “But I didn’t want you to turn against the only thing you believe in. I didn’t want to be responsible for that.” 

“You’re— You’re making me turn against them now, though.”

“No, I’m not.” Seungkwan frowns at him. “Just because I’m not going back doesn’t mean you don’t have to either.”

“Are you even listening to yourself?” Mingyu closes his eyes, his mind one big mess. This isn’t a conversation he ever saw coming. “Do you think I’d just leave you alone out here?” 

“You want to become a soldier. That's all you've ever cared for.”

Which is true. Becoming a soldier it’s— it’s all Mingyu has known. He’s went through years of training and it wasn’t easy. It was fucking hard and it was cruel but Mingyu didn’t mind because he wanted to become a good soldier. 

He never thought too much about it.

Maybe because he knew he’d end up just like Seungkwan; questioning the system, questioning his own beliefs. It was easier to pretend that he was doing the right thing, that there was no other option, that everyone else were… the bad guys.

“I want you alive more than that.” Mingyu finally says.

“So what?” Seungkwan mumbles. “Are you seriously going to give the military up because of me?” 

They look at each other for a long moment, and Seungkwan gives him a sad smile before wishing him a good night and turning his back to Mingyu. 

The question goes unanswered, because Mingyu doesn’t know the answer himself.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i’m not abandoning kalon i promise :’) but i’ve been wanting to write a fic based on "The Last Of Us" ever since i played the video game a few years ago.
> 
> the plot doesn’t have too much to do with the canon story except for the part of them “smuggling” wonwoo to a group of researchers since he’s immune and a few bits and pieces of the original characters' pasts. i hope it wasn’t too confusing to read for people who don't know the video game but if you want to know a bit more, just refer to [this link](http://thelastofus.wikia.com/wiki/The_Last_of_Us) since it’s explaining the canon story and the characters quite well. 
> 
> also, i know wonwoo didn’t play a big part in this chapter, but i promise that will change since this is more of an introduction to the whole story... i'll try to keep the updates regular as best as i can, but for now my main focus is kalon! okay, i'm done rambling. thank you for reading :)


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

Mingyu is surrounded by soft, rose coloured blankets, and for some reason he feels incredibly safe. He hears a woman’s voice; she keeps calling his name and even though Mingyu can’t see her face, he can tell she’s smiling by the tone of her clear voice. 

He can tell that she’s easily the most beautiful woman on the planet. 

Mingyu tries to move but finds that he can’t, and he tries to crane his neck to see the woman, because her calls are turning desperate, and it feels like time is running out. Just as he catches a glimpse of ebony hair and porcelain skin behind him, the world comes to a screeching halt, tilts and crashes.

It happens so fast, so violently it leaves his ears ringing and his body numb. 

The soft blankets are gone, replaced by harsh edges and complete darkness. And pain. Lots of hot, searing pain. He hears screams, and he hears sirens, and he hears someone crying and the woman from before whispering his name. 

“ _Mingyu._ ”

Mingyu blinks, he blinks over and over again, but everything is dark and he’s alone, and he’s scared and he’s in pain and the woman sobs quietly. 

“ _Mingyu, baby, are you okay?”_

That voice…

_“Mingyu?”_

He knows that voice. He knows _her._

_“Mingyu!”_

It’s his—

“Mingyu, wake up!” 

The darkness is gone, and when Mingyu finally opens his eyes he’s met with Seungkwan’s worried face hovering above him. 

“You were dreaming again.” Seungkwan whispers and brushes Mingyu’s hair away from his eyes. “Are you awake now?” 

Mingyu can still hear the woman’s voice, and he once again feels a dull feeling of emptiness spread in his chest. Emptiness and resignation, because it was just a dream, and because it’s the only time he can hear her voice again.

Reality comes crashing down on him like a bucket full of ice.

“Yeah.” He sits up, rubbing at his puffy eyes to try and clear his mind. “Are we heading out?” 

Seungkwan nods and looks over his shoulders, Mingyu following his line of sight. A few people are gathered in the centre of the room, talking in hushed voices and doing things to get ready for the journey. 

“Where’s Jihoon?” Mingyu wants to know, grabbing his boots to put them on securely. His eyes instinctively move to the pillar on the other side and his hands freeze a little when he sees Wonwoo sleeping there, still tied to the cold cement, still looking on the brink of death. 

“He’s talking to Seungcheol.” Seungkwan looks ready to go, his backpack slung over his shoulders. “Gyu?” 

“What?”

“Are we… okay?”

Mingyu gives him a confused look before he remembers their conversation of the night before. His expression falters, and he feels something twist in his stomach, hot and ugly. “I don’t really know what to think, to be honest.” 

Seungkwan lowers his head. “I’m sorry.” 

“Let’s just… Let’s not talk about this now.”

Seungkwan gives him a sad look but nods his head. He twiddles with his fingers for a while, watching Mingyu lace up his boots silently. Mingyu raises his eyebrows at him because his best friend is showing all the telltale signs that he’s trying to muster up the courage to say something that Mingyu won’t be liking too much. 

“What is it?” Mingyu sighs.

“I might’ve done something you might get mad at me for…”

Mingyu gives Seungkwan a wary look. “What did you do?” 

“Well… You know how they’ve been treating Wonwoo.” Seungkwan isn’t meeting Mingyu’s eyes while he speaks. “And it’s almost eight hours to Adrohaw. Nayoung said Soonyoung’s going to keep him on a leash so he doesn’t try to escape. _On a leash._ He isn’t a goddamn dog!”  


“Seungkwan, that guy is their… whatever. It’s none of our business. We’re only helping them so they don’t _kill_ us. My only concern right now is to get us out of this mess unscathed. Sorry but I don’t care about Wonwoo one bit.”

“But I do.” Seungkwan glances at him. “And I know you’re not a heartless monster like them.” 

“And you’re so sure of that because…?”

“I know you like the back of my hand. You’re not a bully.” 

“Just tell me what you did, Seungkwan.” 

Seungkwan bites his lips nervously. “I said we’d make sure he doesn’t escape, but that we weren’t gonna put a leash oh him and that I will take care of him—“  


“Seungkwan, just stop.” Mingyu shakes his head angrily. He still feels on edge because of everything that happened yesterday, not only the fact that they’re going to smuggle a fucking infected guy but also because of Seungkwan dropping such a bomb on him. “The only thing you need to take care of is yourself! You gotta make sure you don’t get killed! Fuck, man, I know your heart; you’d probably sacrifice yourself to save that freak’s ass instead—“  


“He’s not a freak.” Seungkwan sighs. “He’s a normal guy, just like me and you.”

“Are you even listening to me? This isn’t military school, okay? We can’t be careless out here and we can’t afford looking out for a complete stranger! What if he’s the bad guy, huh? Have you even stopped to think about that for a damn second?”

“Yes I have, but he’s not. He’s not the bad guy. He’s just as much of a victim as we are—“

“Oh my fucking god.” Mingyu scoffs, lacing up his other boot rather aggressively. “I can’t believe you.” 

“Soonyoung agreed, but he wants us to guard him together. Apparently he doesn’t trust a _beanpole_ like me to keep him in check on my own.” 

“I’m not going anywhere near that guy.” Mingyu gets up, dusting off his clothes as he goes. “Forget that. Let one of them do it. They are the ones that want to take him to the Fireflies.” 

“It’s either you or me.” Seungkwan gets up too. “And they need their people to protect themselves, not him.”

“ _You_ are definitely not touching him either.” 

They look at each other for a moment, a silent battle of glares, and Mingyu might be stronger in stature but _god_ , Seungkwan can be damn persuasive and stubborn when he wants to. 

But it’s also Mingyu’s fault. He’s too weak when it comes to Seungkwan, and he’s stupid enough to fall for his tricks every single time. He’d do about anything Seungkwan asked him for.

That manipulative little shit.

“If that guy ends up biting me in the ass, it’s on you.” Mingyu grits out after he can’t hold Seungkwan determined gaze any longer. 

“He won’t.” Seungkwan beams and hands him his backpack. “I knew you didn’t have the heart to say no.”

“I’m not doing this for him, okay?” Mingyu slides the heavy backpack on his shoulders, looking at Wonwoo where Nayoung is standing now, nudging his shoulder to get him to wake up. Wonwoo blinks a few times, and Mingyu wishes he’d miss the way Wonwoo finches away from her in fear at first, especially when Soonyoung walks up to him with a knife. 

Soonyoung cuts the rope around him and before Wonwoo can even relax or stretch his arms for a moment, he violently tugs him to his feet and holds his hands together behind his back. 

Wonwoo’s legs almost give away under him. He’s clearly too weak, too injured and starved to even walk and Mingyu wonders how on earth they’re going to get him through the next day alive. 

Seungkwan gives Wonwoo a smile when he looks their way, and Wonwoo’s eyes find Mingyu’s for a fraction of a second, and the resignation in them is enough to send a pang of _something_ to Mingyu’s chest. Something Mingyu hasn’t really felt ever since he found three boys from the military base cornering Seungkwan and calling him names back when they were twelve years old. 

Wonwoo looks away, wincing when Soonyoung uses more force than necessary to get him moving, and Mingyu quickly looks away too. 

That guy is just cargo. 

Nothing more. 

 

 

It’s cold outside once they finally leave the groups’ camp, and Seungkwan sticks close to Mingyu’s side when they breach a wired fence that leads them into a small forest and out of the city. 

Wonwoo is walking right in front of them, stumbling on his weak legs and Mingyu has the muzzle of his gun pointed right between his shoulder blades. His arm starts aching after thirty minutes of holding the heavy rifle, but Soonyoung keeps shooting him warning glares over his shoulders whenever Mingyu lowers the weapon to relax his muscles for a moment. 

Seungcheol only took four of his people with them, not wanting to risk more lives than necessary. Nayoung and him are at the front, leading the group, and Mingyu has a notion that the two of them might be romantically involved after he saw Seungcheol helping her up a ladder too carefully and gently for it to be considered as just friendly. 

But then again, Mingyu does the same with Seungkwan, so maybe not.

Romance isn’t really something Mingyu is very experienced with. Jiyong kept saying that it didn’t exist anymore, that it got replaced by desperation and lust and that people had started to _settle_ for partners now that they didn’t have that much of a choice anymore. 

It’s fucking depressing, but there never were any people his age that could’ve been considered mentally stimulating, except for Seungkwan maybe, but Seungkwan’s always been like his little brother and even the thought of kissing him gives Mingyu cringe attacks.

Soonyoung and another guy they keep calling ‘Hao’ - the one wearing dangling piercings on his earlobes - are flanking them left and right while the third guy checks the grounds for hidden bombs and traps before they can walk right into them. That one’s name is Jun. 

They don’t encounter any other people during the first two hours. No infected cross their path, which should be a good thing, but for some reason it only serves to have Mingyu more on edge with every minute passing in silence. 

 

 

The walk isn’t easy. In the beginning of the outbreak, the military bombed huge cities in hopes of killing off most infected, which initially worked, but it wasn’t a permanent solution and left behind a sight that reminds of one massive battlefield. 

Most buildings are either barricaded shut or there are infected inside, so they have to walk all the way around huge hospitals and skyscrapers, which is a hassle since it would only take them a few minutes to walk through the buildings otherwise. 

At one point the street just stops. 

There’s a huge hole in the ground, looks like it was caused either by one of the bombs or a huge earthquake, and jumping is not an option, so they have to take yet another detour that costs them additional time. 

Mingyu looks at Wonwoo in front of him, and he sees that his knees are shaking from how weak he must be, and he wonders if he should say something but Seungcheol orders them to keep moving, to go faster, so he keeps his mouth shut and looks away.

Big mistake. 

Because almost three hours into the morning Seungcheol stops walking abruptly when they’re about to round a corner, and he holds his arm out to stop everyone behind him from walking too. 

He looks at them and brings his index finger up to his mouth, telling them to stay silent. He puts five fingers up, telling them that there are five infected standing around the corner, which means they’ll either have to stealth around them or kill them. 

The last option is risky, could potentially attract other infected that might be lingering around the area, but they’ve already wasted too much time because this city is slowly but surely falling apart, making it impossible to walk around for a good ten minutes without the fear of the ground beneath them caving in.

Mingyu secures his grip on his rifle, moving his finger to the trigger when the other guys start getting ready to attack, exchanging their guns for switchblades instead. Jihoon looks a little too happy about getting to use the machete Seungcheol gave him earlier, and he gives Mingyu and Seungkwan both a look that tells them to stay put.

But Mingyu wants to fight.

He doesn’t know where the urge suddenly comes from, but all he wants to do is to drop his gun and take that machete from Jihoon’s hands, run around the corner and cut those things’ heads off. 

But Seungkwan sends him an urgent look, and Mingyu grits his teeth together, focusing on his task, which is to keep Seungkwan safe and make sure Wonwoo doesn’t get them killed. 

Which is exactly what happens. 

Because just as the guys are about to take care of the infected, Wonwoo sways on his feet, and Mingyu hastily tries to reach out and get a grip on him once he realizes what’s about to happen, but he’s too late. 

Wonwoo stumbles and his knees give in. He hits the ground with a loud and heavy thud. 

Everyone’s heads snap back, panic and confusion written across their faces. 

“Stupid idiot!” Soonyoung hisses and before Mingyu can even comprehend what the hell just happened, the infected start screeching and wailing, having picked up on the sound.

And suddenly it’s not just a harmless military drill; it’s either life or death, and everything is so loud, and everyone is shouting and everything happens so damn _fast._

Soonyoung swears and stumbles backwards because a second later, the infected are already on them. He stumbles to the ground, one of the infected pinning him down, trying to bite him wherever they can reach, salivating and screeching and scratching.

Jun expertly stabs it in the back before it can sink it’s teeth into Soonyoung. He does it like it's nothing, a calmness in his features when he cleans the blade on his pants that should not be there considering what he just did.

Nayoung jumps on the next one’s back, stabbing it in the neck four times before it goes down with a gut wrenching sound. 

Minghao takes the third one down who has Seungcheol cornered against the wall, snarling and clawing at him before Minghao rips it’s head off with his blade. The guy has a grin on his face while he does it, like he's either lost his mind or like this is actually  _fun_ for him. Mingyu honestly doesn't even want to know.

All of this happens simultaneously; Mingyu sees Jihoon getting crushed under one and Jihoon slashes the blade through it’s guts, but the thing is still alive and before Seungkwan can even think about helping him, Mingyu runs and turns his rifle around. He rams it into the monsters’ head with enough force to split it apart, enough to make it fall backwards and for Seungkwan to ram his knife into it’s neck. 

Mingyu glares at him for putting himself into danger but he gets distracted by a sound coming from behind them.

He finds Wonwoo pressed to the ground by an infected, trying to kick it off with his legs but Wonwoo is too weak at this point. That thing is huge, probably even taller than Mingyu, could easily crush Wonwoo’s rather frail figure underneath him.

It looks like that might actually happen because Wonwoo makes an alarming, pained sound and 

Mingyu finally springs into action, running towards him to kick the monster off of him. He has to use way too much force to get the thing away from Wonwoo’s body and as soon as it’s on it’s back, it tries to attack him again.

Wonwoo weakly scrambles back, knocking into Mingyu’s legs, and Mingyu quickly aims his gun at the monsters’ head, shooting into it twice before the infected finally goes down with a gurgling sound.

The adrenaline is pumping wildly through his body, and both him and Wonwoo are gasping for air now that the danger is gone. Mingyu gulps and looks up to the rest of the group; all of them look to be fine, checking each other for injuries.

Mingyu lowers his head again to look at Wonwoo who is still sitting at his feet. He grips Wonwoo’s arm and pulls him up, finding the boy’s face splattered with blood once he turns around.

“Are you hurt?” Mingyu asks without thinking.

Wonwoo is still panting, and he gives Mingyu a confused look as he wipes the blood away with his fingers. It gets smeared everywhere and Mingyu doesn’t like it.

He has the sudden urge to step closer and clean Wonwoo’s cheeks, but he shoves that feeling right back to where it came from.

“Are you deaf?” Mingyu angrily asks. His anger isn’t directed at Wonwoo, but Mingyu wants to remind himself that this is how he’s supposed to be treating him, not any other way. “I asked if you were hurt.”

He expects Wonwoo to snap at him but Wonwoo just wipes his nose on his sleeve and shakes his head. He looks exhausted and so damn weak and Mingyu doesn’t fucking know what to do with himself. “I’m okay.”

They stare at each other, and Mingyu thinks he must look as confused as Wonwoo looks, but that’s not all. Mingyu feels concerned; not for Wonwoo, but for himself.

Because he didn’t ask Wonwoo if he was okay because they need him alive for the Fireflies.

“Good.” Mingyu says, feeling thrown off by his own thoughts. This isn’t right. He’s being emotional and that’s not what he’s been training for all those years. “You’re no use to anyone if you’re dead.” He says, just to prove Wonwoo that he’s nothing but dirty gum sticking to the bottom of his shoes.

Mingyu mostly does it to prove it to himself.

Wonwoo’s eyes turn cold, the curl of his lips almost bitter. “I know.” He says, voice cracking, before he walks away, not sparing Mingyu another glance. Seungkwan meets him halfway, concern written all over his face as he checks up on Wonwoo.

It’s when Mingyu sees how Wonwoo gives Seungkwan a tired smile, how he sags into Seungkwan’s side when Seungkwan steers him away to join the others, that Mingyu realizes that he ended up being what he never wanted to be; the bad guy.

 

He looks away, his thoughts all jumbled, and sees Seungcheol is cradling Nayoung’s face, her skin smeared with blood, but she just gives him a reassuring smile. 

“That was fun!” She says and Seungcheol gives her a disapproving look but chuckles in relief.

“What the fuck?!” Soonyoung grunts, glaring at Seungkwan who is now busy helping Wonwoo stay on his feet. “That freak nearly got us killed!” 

“Be quiet, you idiot.” Jun huffs, wiping his nose on his sleeve before he speaks again. “You’re gonna attract more of them.” 

“He’s starved.” Seungkwan mutters. “We have to take a break.” 

“We’re already late. We need to get there before sunset.” Seungcheol says. “We’ll take a break once we’re at the school.” 

“He passed out and he can barely walk!” Seungkwan gives him an incredulous look. “What are we going to do? Carry him?” 

“If we have to.” Seungcheol sniffs and points at Mingyu. “He’s the strongest. He can take turns with Soonyoung.” 

“I’m not your fucking underling.” Mingyu scoffs which earns him a glare not only from Seungcheol but also from Jihoon

“The school isn’t too far away now. We have to keep moving.” Seungcheol sighs and looks at Wonwoo. “Can you keep it together for two more hours?”

Wonwoo lifts his head, his chest heaving weakly and gives a faint nod. He stumbles again though and he probably would’ve fallen again if it wasn’t for Seungkwan holding him up.

“For god’s sake. Stop making a scene.” Soonyoung mutters under his breath while Jun secures his backpack for him.

“Can you stop treating him like a dog?” Seungkwan glares at him. 

“Did I ask you for your opinion, _dumpling_?” 

“Dude, watch your mouth.” Mingyu finds himself growing annoyed. He’s had to deal with people like this back at the military camp, too, so it’s nothing new. But his nerves are rubbed raw and it feels like he’s ready to fight anyone who annoys him a little too much at this point. “He’s just trying to help.”

“Hate to break it to you, but this is the real world. I’m sorry if you’re used to being babied in your precious quarantine zones but out here, there’s no time or place for kindness.” Minghao speaks directly to Seungkwan, who juts his chin out with a glare on his face. 

“There’s always time for kindness. You guys just chose to be fucking dicks.” 

Minghao chuckles, his eyes trailing over Seungkwan’s body. “You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” 

Mingyu furrows his eyebrows at the interaction, especially the strange look in Minghao’s eyes, and he’s not so sure how he feels about it, but before he gets around to question it, Seungcheol tells them to stop bickering and keep walking. 

 

 

It seems like they walk forever. 

They run into a few infected here and there on their way, but luckily it’s only small groups of them so Mingyu and the others manage to take them down without much of a fuss. 

Mingyu can’t help but be impressed by Nayoung’s skills; she tackles those monsters without a second thought, slitting their throats like she’s been doing it for years. She looks a little crazy with her hair sticking out of her high ponytail and her skin smeared with dirt and blood but he has to admit that there’s something incredibly attractive about her strength and bravery. 

She falls back to chat with him and Seungkwan more often than not since Seungcheol’s busy discussing their plans with Jihoon at the front and the other guys are talking about mindless things between themselves. 

Mingyu learns that she’s twenty-two years old and that she met Seungcheol three years ago in a quarantine zone before they ran away to live on their own in the outskirts together with Soonyoung, who’s been Seungcheol’s best friend since they were little kids.

Their group started growing after they rescued the brothers Minghao and Jun when they were cornered by a bunch of infected last year. 

“We’re a family.” She shrugs, rolling her eyes when Soonyoung gets Jun into a headlock playfully instead of keeping an eye on their surroundings. “All we have left is each other.” 

Family. 

Seungkwan flashes Mingyu a smile at the word. Mingyu supposes that Seungkwan is the only and closest thing to a family he has left in his life. 

Maybe that’s why he still feels so thrown off from finding out about Seungkwan’s change of heart. 

He still can’t believe it, and he still doesn’t know what to do. 

It’s like he’s stuck between two sides, and no matter which side he ends up choosing, he won’t one hundred percent feel like he’s doing the right thing.

 

 

 

“This is it.” Jihoon announces about two hours later, carefully lifting his gun again. “This is the school.” 

“And you’re sure this is their hide-out?” Minghao asks, his eyes scanning the building warily. “Looks pretty empty to me.”

Mingyu can only agree. It doesn’t look occupied. 

Which can’t be a good sign. Mingyu feels himself tense up at the sudden silence that surrounds them and grips Seungkwan’s arm to pull him closer to his side when his friend tries to walk ahead like he owns the damn place.

“A friend of mine came back from a mission three weeks ago.” Jihoon licks his lips and takes a few steps towards the entrance of the building. “There should be a group of at least ten people here.” 

“Let’s go inside.” Seungcheol nudges him out of the way and takes a deep breath before he pushes the door open with his arm.

They follow him inside once he gives them his okay and they’re met by the familiar sight of an abandoned building. Broken furniture and personal items scattered everywhere, dirt and plants covering the floors and walls.

“It’s too silent.” Soonyoung mutters, walking away to check the few rooms that are surrounding the entrance hall they’re in. “No one’s here.” 

“Maybe they’re upstairs?” Nayoung suggests. 

“We should check—“

“Hello?!” Mingyu shouts, which instantly earns them death glares from everyone of the group. 

Even Wonwoo turns around to give him a questioning look, like he thinks Mingyu might’ve lost his mind. Minghao snorts, mouthing  _idiot_ at him.

“Do you have a fucking death wish?” Soonyoung hisses, stalking towards him to push at his chest rather harshly. 

“No one’s here, you said it yourself.” Mingyu pushes him off with a grunt. “This is a waste of time. They’re gone.” 

“Let’s check upstairs first.” Seungcheol shakes his head. “They have to be here. They _have_ to.” 

They’re not. 

Mingyu checks the rooms in the back, holding Wonwoo by the back of his sweater so he doesn’t run away while the others aren’t paying attention to him, and the only thing he finds are _traces_ of the fireflies having been here; there are illegible notes scattered on the tables and tags engraved with their firefly symbol. 

They find a room that looks like a lab, too. Full of broken microscopes and test tubes and syringes. To Mingyu it looks like the fireflies left in a hurry and they trashed the whole place so nothing in here would be of use any longer.

There are several glass boxes with dead rats inside. The rats don’t look like they’ve been dead for long, which means the fireflies couldn’t have left too long ago.

Mingyu glances at Wonwoo, who’s wearing a disturbed look on his face, his eyes glued to the dead animals who are missing patches of fur all over their bodies, their skin pierced and torn.

Wonwoo steps closer, and he reaches a hand out as if to touch the glass box.

“Don’t.” Mingyu grips his wrist, stopping him before he can. They don’t know what kind of experiments the fireflies made in here, they don’t know what kinds of fluids are sticking to the surfaces, and he doesn’t want to risk triggering Wonwoo’s infection in some kind of way. “Don’t touch anything.” 

The guy’s wrist feels too bony in Mingyu’s hand; his thumb easily overlapping his fingers where they’re curled around the frail limb. It’s alarming and Mingyu has no idea how Wonwoo is still alive.

Wonwoo looks up at him, his fingers curling into a fist where Mingyu is still gripping his wrist. “That’s going to be me.” 

Mingyu stares into his dark eyes, and he’s about to say that Wonwoo’s wrong, that he needs to stop acting like he’s the victim here, but then he realizes that Wonwoo is right, and that there’s nothing Mingyu can say without sounding like a selfish hypocrite. 

“What the fuck are you doing?” Minghao’s voice from the door makes them move apart quickly, and Minghao gives them a confused look before nodding his head towards the stairs. “Stop screwing around. Seungcheol’s waiting.” 

Mingyu pushes Wonwoo towards the door, causing him to stumble, and he shakes his head to himself, gritting his teeth together.

_Get a grip you idiot._

 

 

“If the fireflies are gone then we don’t need him anymore.” Soonyoung points at Wonwoo with his gun and Seungkwan immediately steps forward, like he could protect Wonwoo. 

“We didn’t walk eight hours just to give up.” Nayoung sighs and sits down on the ground. “He’s the cure, guys. Are we just going to keep it to ourselves when we know he could probably save us all?” 

“Nayoung’s right.” Seungcheol says. “I’m not stopping now. He’s not going to hand himself in, so we have to. It would be selfish to keep this to ourselves when we know the fireflies have the resources to actually do something useful with him.” 

“Can you stop talking like he’s not in the room?” Seungkwan gives them all an incredulous look. “At least stop treating him like he’s some kind of object.” 

“He’s going to die anyway so where’s the fucking point?” Soonyoung rolls his eyes. 

“Look, we had a deal; we would take you to the fireflies, but they’re not here. Tough luck.” Mingyu shrugs and gives Jihoon a pointed look. “We did what you asked us to, so now you keep your part of the deal and let us go so we can go back to our mission.” 

“Mingyu’s right.” Jihoon nods his head. “This is your problem, not ours.” 

“Do you not see how important this is? We’re not doing this for ourselves! We’re trying to save the world. How can you say it’s not your problem?” Seungcheol mutters.

“I think we should help them.” Seungkwan speaks up.

“Of course you fucking do.” Mingyu mutters “Just keep your mouth shut, Seungkwan.” 

His friend glares at him and walks away and Mingyu feels like breaking something. He knows he’s hurting Seungkwan with his behaviour but it’s not like Seungkwan stopped to consider Mingyu’s feelings when he simply decided to leave the military. 

Jihoon sighs and looks at Seungkwan. “We would get in a lot of trouble if we didn’t follow Jiyong’s orders, and you know that.” 

Seungkwan sends Mingyu a look for help and Mingyu simply shakes his head, exhausted and kind of done with this whole situation. 

“Tell us where we can find the fireflies.” Nayoung looks up at them. “That’s the least you can do.” 

“You can’t just _find_ them.” Jihoon closes his eyes in frustration. “They don’t want to be found. They could be gone by the time we get there, so listen to me when I say it’s not even worth the try.” 

“Where are they?” Jun asks, stepping out from behind Minghao’s back. “I know they have a huge camp in a hospital somewhere up north. They wouldn’t leave a facility like that just out of the blue.” 

Jihoon looks like he’s having an internal battle. “In North Klenn. They— They _had_ a medical facility there. No one can say for sure if it’s still in use.” 

“North Klenn?” Minghao snorts. “That’s not exactly within walking distance.”

“It’s three hours if you have a car, and _only_ if you take the highway.” Jihoon tilts his head and presses his lips together. “That’s at least three days by foot, not including all the detours and breaks you’d have to take. It would take you guys at least a week to get there.” 

“Seungcheol, that’s just mad.” Soonyoung places his hands behind his neck. “Let’s forget about the fact that the fireflies might not even be there; it’s too dangerous. We don’t know the area out of this city well enough. We don’t know what the situation out there looks like with infected, and we don’t know what kind of crazy people are occupying the cities.” 

“We have to try.” Seungcheol tilts his head back, like he’s expecting the ceiling to come up with a solution to their problems. “I have a friend a few hours away from here. He had a working car last time I saw him.”

“Which was when?” 

“A year ago. I don’t know.”

Mingyu furrows his eyebrows. “Your friend might be dead by now.” 

Seungkwan throws a pebble at his head. “Tactless asshole.” 

“I’m just saying—“

“We could really use your help.” Seungcheol turns to look at Jihoon, ignoring them both. “And I know you guys don’t owe us anything, but this would benefit you too. Aren’t you sick of fearing for your life every goddamn day? Don’t you want to— want the world to be normal again?” 

Mingyu gives Jihoon an incredulous look when their leader looks like he’s starting to consider Seungcheol’s offer. Mingyu shakes his head. “We’re not like you. We can’t saunter around the cities whenever we want. We’re _soldiers._ We couldn’t ever go back to the quarantine zone if we don’t return within a week. They’ll think we ran off.” 

“What’s so bad about that?” Jun asks. “You know just as well as we do how fucked up the military is. I don’t see how guys like you would support a corrupt system like that.”

“They saved our lives.” Mingyu glares at him. “None of us would be alive if it wasn’t for them.”

“That doesn’t mean you owe them your loyalty. Do you, one hundred percent, agree with how the military has handled the situation after the outbreak?” 

“That’s not the point—“

“It’s _exactly_ the point!” Jun snorts, shaking his head. “If you stick with assholes like that just because they were nice enough to save your ass back when you were a toddler only to mind-wash you and turn you into the military’s puppets, that says a lot about your character, buddy. Did you ever actually make the choice to become a soldier or is it what they forced you to become?” 

“What do you know about the military, huh?” Mingyu steps forward and into Jun’s space, his hands shaking at his sides. “Don’t open your mouth when you don’t know shit.”

“I was a soldier too, you fucking moron.” Jun gives him a creepy smile. “Minghao and me both. We decided to leave, because we didn’t want to be part of those heartless bastards anymore. Because unlike you guys, we chose not to stay ignorant to all the sick games those bastards have been playing.” 

“Okay, let’s calm down for a second.” Seungcheol interrupts them while Mingyu and Jun both are busy staring each other down. “I think since Jihoon is the leader of your group, it should be up to him to decide wether you’re going to join us or not.” 

“Jihoon” Seungkwan walks up to him. “You know it’s right for us to help them. If Wonwoo really is immune, it would change everything and I—“ He stops, eyes darting around nervously. “You and I both know what the military would do with him if they got their hands on him.” 

“He’ll die either way.” Mingyu says and Seungkwan glances at Wonwoo, who stares at the ground without an expression on his face. 

“With the fireflies, he will at least die for a good cause.” Seungcheol tries.

Jihoon shakes his head, swearing a couple of times while all eyes are on him, waiting for his next words. “Mingyu, what do you say?”

Mingyu gives him a confused look. “Since when is my opinion relevant?”

“Yeah, sorry but he doesn’t seem like the brightest guy around. I don’t really trust his judgement after he shouted around like that.” Soonyoung mutters, smirking when Mingyu glares in his direction. 

“Seungkwan wants us to help them. I want to know your opinion, too.” Jihoon explains. 

Mingyu looks at Seungkwan, who has this childlike, hopeful glint in his eyes, and he looks at the rest of the people who look the exact opposite; they all look hopeless, like this is their last chance, like they’re tired of living like this. 

And he looks at Wonwoo, who knows exactly what fate has in store for him, that he needs to play the role of the hero who sacrifices his own life in order to save the world. 

It’s always been easier to let others decide for him. That’s how his life has been; Jun was right. He didn’t chose to be a soldier, he was forced to become one. He didn’t chose to support a totalitarian system that kills anyone who believes in a cure, anyone who tries to fight for a new world, anyone who doesn’t do their bidding. 

He grew up in it and he didn’t know anything else and he was simply too stupid to stop and question things.

Something Seungkwan had the courage to do.

Maybe Mingyu’s always been more of a coward than he wanted to admit.

Because no matter what he does, he’ll end up being the bad guy from at least someone’s point of view.

“Seungkwan wants to do it.” He says and as he says it, it feels like he’s making more than only one choice in that exact moment. He looks at Seungkwan, who gives him an encouraging nod of his head. “There’s no way I’m leaving him, so I’m in.”

 

 

They decide to spend the night at the school and come up with a plan before they hit the road come daylight. 

Seungcheol and Jihoon are busy talking upstairs while the rest of them are gathered in the entrance hall, Minghao already asleep with his head resting on Jun’s lap who is stirring a pot of something in the middle of the room. Soonyoung and Nayoung are chatting quietly in another corner. 

Seungkwan is talking to Wonwoo and while Wonwoo isn’t exactly ignoring him, his answers only go as far as curt nods of his head, or an indifferent shrug of his shoulders. 

Mingyu looks up from the floor, his eyes trailing over Wonwoo’s profile. Wonwoo’s eyes are almost closed, and he keeps blinking like he’s trying to stay awake.

He remembers the look on his face when he saw those dead rats upstairs, and the scared tone of his voice when he told Mingyu that he was going to end up just like them. 

Mingyu doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t understand why Wonwoo is resisting so much. If Mingyu was immune to the infection and not part of the military, he’d do anything to find people who know how to use his immunity to create a cure or some kind of countermeasure.

If he had the chance to save the world, he’d do it in a heart beat. 

If only just for Seungkwan to be able to walk around outside without being scared of getting attacked by a bunch of infected. 

“Okay guys.” Seungcheol and Jihoon enter the room again. “We’re going to look for my friend in a town not too far from here. If everything goes according to plan, we should be there within two days, and if we can get his car, we can get to North Klenn by the end of the week.” 

Jihoon sits down next to Mingyu and places his bag on the floor. It’s been tense between them after Jihoon gave in to Seungcheol’s request so easily.

“You know Jiyong won’t take us back after this.” Mingyu says. “He’ll kill us if he finds out.” 

“I’m aware.” Jihoon sighs and closes his eyes. “But this feels like the right thing to do.” 

Lee Jihoon, one of the best soldiers in their military base, breaking the rules, just like that. Just because it feels right? 

Mingyu can’t believe it. He knows how Jihoon works, knows how much he values the stance of the military, and now he’s going against everything they stand for? 

“Why the sudden change of heart?” 

Jihoon shakes his head and turns around so his back is facing Mingyu. “It wasn’t so sudden, Mingyu.” And that’s all he says, and the tone of his voice leaves no room for questions. 

“There’s one more thing we need to discuss.” Seungcheol pauses before he turns to walk towards Wonwoo, who watches him with a blank look on his face. He sitting against the wall, hands and feet once again tied together. “If we want this to work out, we need you to cooperate. I don’t want to have to treat you like a prisoner all the time.”  


“You need me to do a lot of things, don’t you?” Wonwoo speaks after a beat of silence. “Well, I need you to fuck yourself.” 

“Look, I don’t know what your problem is or why you’re resisting so much, but I don’t think you understand the importance of all of this.” 

“Oh, trust me I do.” Wonwoo clenches his jaw and shakes his head, his shoulders sagging. “ _You_ don’t understand.” 

“So help me understand.” Seungcheol sighs. “I get that this isn’t an easy situation, but it would be nice if you’d help us out here a little.”

“It’s none of your business.” Wonwoo says, and that’s all that leaves his lips.

Seungcheol looks tired when he tries to approach him one more time. “There’s a reason why you’re immune. We can’t just— We can’t just pretend that you’re not basically carrying the cure to the infection inside of you.”

Wonwoo stares at the ground for a long time and he looks so small and frail, sitting on the cold ground like that, and Mingyu feels something twist in his chest, a dull ache that makes his fingers curl into fists at his sides trying to suppress the feeling. 

“I’ll do it.” Wonwoo mutters suddenly, making every head in the room jerk up. “I won’t try to escape. I’ll go to the fireflies. Under one condition.” 

“Which would be?” 

“I want a gun.”

“No fucking way!” Soonyoung jumps to his feet. 

“You… you want a gun.” Seungcheol slowly repeats. 

“I want to be able to protect myself. I don’t want anyone babysitting me all the time.” His eyes flicker to Mingyu, who can’t help but flinch at the intensity of his gaze. 

“No way.” Soonyoung shakes his head. “Do you seriously expect us to agree? Who says you won’t kill all of us while we’re asleep so you can escape?” 

“You can tie me up at night, I don’t fucking care.” Wonwoo shakes his head. “But give me something to defend myself.”

Seungcheol looks at him for a few moments before shaking his head. “I’m sorry, but Soonyoung’s right. I don’t really trust you enough to give you a weapon. Mingyu has been doing a pretty decent job at keeping you safe, hasn’t he?” 

“He’s a kid.” Wonwoo nearly snarls, making Mingyu’s temper act up.

“Who are you calling a kid?” He snorts. “You’re not that much older than me.”  


Wonwoo glares at him. “You got distracted by a rusted motorcycle today.” 

“It was an original low rider and I haven’t—” Mingyu tries to defend himself but stops once he sees the roll of Jihoon’s eyes and the amused smirk on Seungkwan’s face. “How about you just thank me instead of throwing insults around, huh?”

“Thank you for what?” Wonwoo stares at him, and Mingyu stares right back. “For keeping me alive until the fireflies can cut me open?” 

They’re both thinking about the lab rats upstairs, Mingyu can clearly see the nervous glint in Wonwoo’s eyes.

“Look, we can talk about getting you a weapon once we find a car, but until then I say we keep things as they are. We will keep you safe.” Seungcheol offers but Wonwoo shrugs him off with a nasty insult. 

Nayoung sighs and starts serving food for them. It’s not much, considering the amount of canned food they can carry around, so they all get a small bowl of bean stew. Mingyu is starving but he notices Seungkwan moving to kneel in front of Wonwoo to feed him since the guy’s hands are tied up and he doesn’t like that at all.

Seungkwan’s stomach has been rumbling for the past three hours and he looks a little pale from the day’s events and the long march. Mingyu tries to ignore the urge coiling in his stomach, but he ends up cursing under his breath and putting his bowl down, walking over to push Seungkwan aside.

“What are you doing?” Seungkwan asks, looking a bit concerned, like he expects Mingyu to yell at him for taking care of Wonwoo.

“You’re about to pass out. Go eat.” Mingyu mutters, taking the bowl from Seungkwan’s hands. 

“But he needs to eat…” Seungkwan gives Wonwoo a worried look. “Mingyu please—“

“I’ll feed him. Just get lost, Seungkwan.” Mingyu whispers, swallowing nervously. He’s not good at this. He usually only takes care of Seungkwan. 

Seungkwan widens his eyes at him and he looks like he’s going to protest for a second, but he gives him a quick smile and finally moves to join the rest of the group on the other side.

Mingyu sits down in front of Wonwoo, folding his legs beneath him. He avoids Wonwoo’s gaze even though he can feel the guy’s eyes burning on his skin.

He scoops out some beans and brings them up to Wonwoo’s dry lips, but of course Wonwoo doesn’t want to play along. 

He keeps his mouth shut tightly and does nothing but glare at Mingyu like he’s seconds away from spitting in his face.

“You have to eat.” Mingyu tries to sound as calm as possible. The situation is the same as the night before with the water, and Wonwoo is still making things difficult. Everything in him screams for him to just shoot the guy yet here he is, trying to goddamn feed him.

He sees the muscles in Wonwoo’s jaw work before the guy parts his lips to speak. “I don’t need you to feed me.” His voice is still too rough, cracked and barely audible from how weak it sounds. 

Mingyu almost rolls his eyes. “Screw your pride, man. You can’t even sit straight and your hands are tied together.” 

It’s almost like they’re playing a game of who can go longer without blinking with how hard they’re glaring at each other. 

“For fuck’s sake.” Mingyu mutters under his breath. He grips Wonwoo’s face, pressing his fingers into the hollows of his cheeks left and right to get him to open his mouth and before Wonwoo gets to close it again, he drops the beans into it. 

Wonwoo looks at him with wide eyes and he looks like he’s about to spit the food right out again. “Is it poisoned?” 

Mingyu is slightly taken aback by the question. He snorts and shakes his head. “They need you alive, so no. And you should trust Seungkwan a bit more, too. He’s the only one here who means well for you.”  


Wonwoo starts chewing on the beans, slowly at first, but it’s like he finally remembers just how much he’s starving because he swallows it down so fast he nearly chokes on it. Mingyu clears his throat and feeds him another spoonful, trying not to stare, but it’s hard, because those beans taste stale and feel like slugs in your mouth yet Wonwoo eats them like they’re the most delicious thing he’s eaten in years. 

“Why are you helping me, then?” Wonwoo asks, his tongue darting out to clean his lips hungrily while he waits for Mingyu to scoop out some more beans. 

“I’m doing it for him.” Mingyu presses the spoon into Wonwoo’s mouth, his eyes tracing the wayWonwoo’s lips slide over the spoon. “I don’t really give a shit about you. You would’ve been dead the moment I saw you if it was up to me.” 

Wonwoo is quiet after that, and Mingyu keeps feeding him the rest of the beans in silence. He looks up once, and Wonwoo is already staring at him, and Mingyu nearly makes the mistake of asking him about the bite.

How it happened. 

If he really is immune to the infection.

Where his family is. 

He lowers the bowl, and Wonwoo gulps miserably and Mingyu can see that he’s not even close to being full. Mingyu should leave him be but he keeps looking into Wonwoo’s eyes, and Wonwoo already looks a bit healthier and Mingyu wonders how much food they gave him in the past four days. 

Mingyu has no idea what comes over him; he convinces himself that he’s doing it for Seungkwan, so his friend won’t have to worry so much about Wonwoo anymore.

It’s the only reason he picks up his own bowl and offers Wonwoo another spoon of Mingyu’s own bowl. 

Wonwoo’s eyes widen a little once he realizes what Mingyu is doing. He shakes his head. “Don’t—“

“Just eat.” Mingyu clears his throat, not wanting to meet Wonwoo’s eyes anymore. 

Wonwoo doesn’t move for a moment, but in the end his hunger is stronger than his pride and confusion, so he opens his mouth and lets Mingyu feed him half of his own portion. 

Mingyu hasn’t eaten anything the entire day, so there’s no way he can give Wonwoo more than this. He picks up both bowls, and his eyes flicker up to meet Wonwoo’s, who quickly looks away. It’s awkward between them. 

Mingyu shouldn’t have done that. What was he thinking, giving up his own precious food for an ungrateful guy like Wonwoo? 

He goes to sit down next to Seungkwan again, who raises his eyebrows at him when he sees that his bowl is already half empty. He doesn’t say anything but a smile spreads on his face.

Mingyu ignores him and eats, wondering why he did what he just did.

 

 

 

 

Once they’ve cleaned up, Seungkwan starts asking Nayoung some questions, which sparks up a conversation between all of them. It’s already dark outside, so they have to light a few candles in the room to light up the room.

Mingyu finds out quite a lot about them, like how Nayoung is an expert in handling melee weapons while Jun is responsible for explosives and traps. Minghao was studying martial arts back in the quarantine zone before he left and he’s been teaching Soonyoung since they joined the group, so both of them are most skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

Seungkwan mindlessly goes on and on about their military training and how they’ve been spending the past ten years having military drills on a daily basis. He doesn’t leave out the nasty parts and Mingyu tries to ignore the judging looks it earns them from the group.

He tells Nayoung everything Mingyu would’ve kept to himself, but he doesn’t have the heart to stop him, especially now that he finally starts to understand how hard those past few years must’ve been on Seungkwan.

“Why does Soonyoung hate soldiers so much?” Mingyu quietly asks when Seungkwan takes a breather from his talking, his eyes glued to said man’s back. Soonyoung isn’t really taking part in their conversation, already lying on his mat and facing the wall at the other end of the room. He must feels the eyes on him, because he looks over his shoulder and meets Mingyu’s gaze for a second. 

Something flickers in his eyes before he turns his back to them again, and Mingyu wonders what kind of person Soonyoung is under all that hate and the tough shell he’s putting on.

Nayoung’s expression changes, no matter how much he tries to hide it. She fiddles with a pebble on the ground for a while before a heavy exhale leaves her lips. “His name was Samuel. He was… like a younger brother to Soonyoung.” She shrugs and Mingyu sees sorrow in her features. “Soldiers shot him down when we were looking for a new place to stay. We were trespassing, but we weren’t aware of that. He was— He was only fourteen.” 

“When did this happen?” Mingyu asks, trying not to let her words get to him, even though it’s hard. He _is_ a soldier after all, and he was taught not to judge a situation before considering all the angles of a situation, no matter how heartbreaking the incident may be.

There are always two sides to a story.

“It’s only been a few weeks.” She says, her voice quivering a little. She turns her head away, trying to hide her expression. “It’s still fresh in our minds. Soonyoung’s still grieving.” 

“I’m sorry.” Seungkwan suddenly whispers. 

“Don’t.” Mingyu gives him a stern look, having had enough of it. They wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for the military. They owe them their lives, and no matter what the people on the outside say, they’ve been taking care of them for the past fifteen years. Mingyu was only four years old when the outbreak happened; he would’ve been killed instantly if that soldier didn’t rescue him from the wreckage. “You don’t have to apologize for anything.”

Nayoung creases her brow when she looks at him again, shaking her head. “We don’t blame you. We’ve killed more soldiers than I can count on both hands. It’s how this fucked up world works. But don’t blame Soonyoung for his behaviour; he just needs more time.”

“Why is he treating Wonwoo like that, though?” Seungkwan says, and all of them focus their eyes on the frail boy leaning against the wall, his head lowered towards the ground in exhaustion. Mingyu quickly looks away, feeling nervous for some elusive reason. 

“Why is _anyone_ treating others like that?” Nayoung shrugs and puffs out her cheeks. “Distrust.”

It’s silent in the room, but only for a moment, because Minghao sighs and says they should talk about something more cheerful. "Man, I miss having sex." Minghao throws it out there like it’s nothing, but it manages to cut the tension, making them laugh and it even gets Mingyu to smile a bit. "Did you notice there are no condoms around anymore? It's like the people decided to spend the rest of their days fucking or something."

"Language, Hao." Seungcheol mumbles sleepily, Nayoung carding her fingers through his hair with a smile on her face.

"Fuck off." Minghao shoots him a grin but stops once Jun slaps him upside the head, telling him to shut up.

The guys are actually quite okay. Jun and Minghao are easy going; Jun seems to be more laid back and silent while Minghao basically just says what’s on his mind. He swears a _lot_ and has a rather dark sense of humour but Mingyu finds that he likes him alright. 

Seungcheol tells them to go to sleep before it gets too late and they all settle down for the night, but Mingyu has a hard time falling asleep. 

He’s exhausted, and he’s still so damn hungry, but his thoughts won’t stop. He stares at the ceiling for what feels like hours before he gives up.

 

 

Jihoon finds him later, when everyone else is already asleep. 

Mingyu is sitting in front of a window upstairs, starting into nothing but darkness outside. The moon isn’t shining and there are obviously no street lights to lighten up the night.

It’s dark.

Mingyu can hear them.

He can hear the infected, can hear them staggering around, can hear their animalistic sounds, and it makes him feel sick.

“What are you doing?” Jihoon sits down next to him, silently looking out the window. “Scary, huh?”

Mingyu doesn’t answer, too busy dealing with all those haunting thoughts.

Seungkwan turning his back to the military, them joining this strange bunch while they should be killing all of them, Wonwoo potentially being immune.

Wonwoo…

Mingyu lowers his head, a sigh leaving his lips.

“Is everything okay, Mingyu?” Jihoon asks after watching Mingyu dwell in his thoughts.

“Seungkwan wants to leave the military.” Mingyu says. He looks up when there’s no immediate answer from Jihoon, frowning when he sees how unimpressed Jihoon looks. “You know.” Mingyu states, wanting to laugh at the entire situation.

Jihoon takes a deep breath. “He told me a while ago.”

“Wow.” Is all Mingyu says. He feels so damn betrayed. He feels so many things and he doesn’t know how to deal with any of them. He isn’t used to this; back in the quarantine zone he didn’t have to deal with those emotions. Everything was okay as long as he obeyed the rules.

“Mingyu… don’t do this.” Jihoon sighs, taking in Mingyu’s angers displayed on his face. “You know why Seungkwan kept it from you.”

“Fuck that.” Mingyu gulps. He feels like crying and he has no idea why.

“I’m not going back either, Mingyu.” Jihoon drops the next thing on him.

Mingyu gives a weak laugh and buries his face in the bend of his elbow. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I’m not joking.” Jihoon answers bluntly. “The only reason I agreed on taking you out to the mission is because I needed a window to escape.”

“So what” Mingyu asks, his head feeling slightly numb by now. “You and Seungkwan were going to leave me out here on my own?”

“No.” Jihoon is probably rolling his eyes. Mingyu can’t see, still hiding his eyes behind his arm. “We knew you were going to follow us.”

“I’m not leaving the military.” Mingyu looks up at him. “Jihoon, fuck, I can’t.”

“You still have time to make your decision.”

“I don’t want to make a decision!” Mingyu says. “I want to know what the hell turned both of you into traitors after all those years!”

Jihoon gives him a long look and Mingyu thinks he sees something like pity in his eyes. “Traitors, huh?” He snorts and shakes his head. “You’re a smart kid, Mingyu. You just have to open your eyes.”

He looks at Mingyu again and awkwardly pats his shoulder before getting up and leaving.

“They _are_ open.” Mingyu mutters to himself, feeling frustration boil in his chest as he looks out the window again.

It’s still pitch black.

Mingyu’s eyes are wide open, but he can’t see a single thing.

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i won't be updating this regularly for now but i wanted to get the introductory chapters out at least :)


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

They hit the road the next day as soon as the sun rises. The friend Seungcheol mentioned yesterday is supposed to be living in a small town called Orvin, which could easily be reached within four hours if they had a car and, well, proper _streets_.

Since they have to walk, it will probably take them several days to get there and since no person in their right mind would wander the streets during nighttime, Nayoung woke them up at asscrack of dawn.

It’s drizzling a little and fog is hanging in the air and Mingyu just hopes that the weather will get better during the day because it’s cold enough for Seungkwan to glue himself to Mingyu’s back and press his chattering teeth into the light jacket Mingyu’s wearing.

Everyone’s still fairly quiet, most of the guys half asleep while Seungcheol and Nayoung are talking to themselves at the front in hushed tones.

Mingyu’s eyeing the abandoned buildings around them, the useless cars with broken windows and rusted doors. It’s kind of funny, because one of the older soldiers once showed them a movie that was filmed almost thirty years ago; it was about a zombie apocalypse and while the producers of that movie were only relying on their imagination when they created that world, they pretty much hit the nail on the head with it.

It’s exactly what everything looks like.

Cold, empty, broken, falling apart, lifeless. Abandoned.

He looks away from where he was studying a bird that was shaking the rain out of it’s wings and directs his gaze to the person walking right in front of him.

Wonwoo looks a lot better today, although there’s still a slight limp to his walk. At least it doesn’t seem like he’s going to pass out any minute like yesterday. He’s kicking at some pebbles on the ground, looking around curiously like he hasn’t been in this part of town either.

Mingyu can’t help but wonder what kind of person Wonwoo is because right now, he’s just playing the role of the submissive captive, not really talking, not really giving _anything_ away, really.

Not that Mingyu blames him. And he definitely doesn’t care. His only goal is to hand him over to the Fireflies so that Seungkwan and him can go and start a new life out here.

Yeah, you could say Mingyu has pretty much made up his mind. He’s never been a very complicated person - which often leads people to think that there isn’t much going on up there in his head - so the only question he had to ask himself was if Seungkwan or becoming a soldier’s more important to him.

And really, that’s just a no-brainer.

Seungkwan is family and Mingyu values that boy more than his own life.

He isn’t sure why he’s been so adamant on becoming a good soldier all his life. Maybe he just wanted a _purpose._ Something that gave his life meaning because people are so prone to just end their lives these days since they simply don’t see a point anymore.

Seungkwan takes a sip from his water bottle and hands it to Mingyu. “You need to drink more, Gyu.” He mumbles, shooting him a warm smile before jogging to catch up with Minghao.

Mingyu studies his best friends’ back for a while. Seungkwan needs him, so maybe that’ll be his new purpose.

Keeping them alive.

 

 

The next two hours pass without any major incidents. Jun’s leg gets stuck in a huge crack in the pavement but they manage to get it out without him twisting anything. He still needs some bandages and they walk a little slower despite him insisting that he’s fine.

Minghao doesn’t leave his side for a second after that, keeps checking up on his brother and makes sure to cover them both when they stop at an odd sound.

“Through here.” Nayoung stops walking at one point in front of a giant building, the faded signs attached to it spelling out an illegible word followed by _museum_.

“Why?” Jihoon wants to know, always the sceptic among them. He may have told Mingyu that he also wants to give up being a soldier but in moments like these, their military training definitely shines through his facade.

“It’s faster.” Seungcheol jumps in, pushing the heavy wooden door open. “There are underground tunnels that lead to the other side of town. It’s faster, trust me.” He repeats when Jihoon narrows his eyes.

They go inside, Mingyu pressing his gun against Wonwoo’s nape to get him moving. Wonwoo suddenly turns around to shoot him a glare that catches Mingyu off guard and he just gapes at the guy while he disappears inside.

Seungkwan laughs next to him.

“Shut up.” Mingyu grunts and makes his way inside the building.

“You don’t have to keep doing that. He’s not going to run away.” Seungkwan says, raising his gun when they enter the massive entrance hall.

Mingyu’s eyes quickly flicker and take in his surroundings, checking how many doors and stairs there are, possible exits and hiding spots, all things the military drilled into his brain over the past years.

“We don’t know that.” Mingyu shrugs, following the rest of the group through the hall. “I still don’t trust him.” He furrows his eyebrows when he spots said person standing still ahead of them, anger rising in his chest.

“Hey, keep walking.” Mingyu snaps after making his way over to him.

And Wonwoo— he just ignores him.

“Who do you think this is?” Wonwoo asks, reaching out to touch the statue with wide eyes. Like he’s never seen a museum before—

Oh. Yeah. He probably hasn’t.

Mingyu’s never been in one either, after all.

“Keep walking before I make you.” Mingyu says, watches how Wonwoo drops his hand, how his shoulders slump before he does as he’s told.

He’s so confused. Is it because Wonwoo had a good sleep and isn’t starving anymore that he’s suddenly letting his personality shine through?

Whatever the reason is, Mingyu doesn’t like it. The change is just… it’s too _sudden_. Something feels off, so Mingyu holds his gun steadier and points it at Wonwoo as he walks behind him.

“Gyu.” Jihoon mutters once they’ve caught up with the group again, looking over his shoulders at Mingyu who probably looks lost in thought. “Focus, will you?”

Mingyu swallows, his throat feeling dry as hell, and nods his head, willing himself not to think so much about everything. He was trained to just _do_ things without questioning them; this isn’t any different, right?

“Down here.” Seungcheol speaks up, pointing at a metal door that looks like it used to be locked with a security code, but since electricity isn’t working here, those things don’t either. Seungcheol opens the door and walks inside, quickly checking for infected before telling them to follow him.

They walk down four sets of stairs, the air around them growing increasingly colder and the familiar smell of underground areas starts filling his nose; earthy and slightly musty.

“Turn your flashlights on.” Seungcheol instructs them when they enter the tunnels. “And put your masks on.”

They look to be in good shape, but there are rotten bodies of infected literally glued to the walls and the ground, red strings that look like veins growing out of them and all over the walls and the floors.

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Seungkwan mumbles when he accidentally steps into the head of one, only for it crumble under the force like dry leaves.

Wonwoo is walking in front of Mingyu, breathing the stale air filled with spores around them in like it’s nothing. Any other person would be doomed if they breathed in too much of that stuff but then again, Wonwoo is different, isn’t he?

Seungcheol tells them to stop, and when Mingyu narrows his eyes and points his flashlight to the front he sees why. The tunnel is blocked by a massive heap of rubble.

“That doesn’t look safe.” Jihoon mumbles, pointing his flashlight upwards. It’s not just the ceiling of the tunnel that’s crashed; it looks like he floor above broke down as well, making it impossible to simply climb over the wreckage.

“We can go through here.” Nayoung kneels down on the ground, reaching her hand out to the small opening in the bottom right corner.

“Yeah, sure, if you have a death wish.” Jihoon glares at her. She raises an eyebrow at him.

“What, are you scared?”

“No. I’m just not out of my mind.”

Seungcheol sighs and gently nudges Nayoung aside to shine his flashlight into the opening. “It’ll work. We can’t waste any more time. Just be careful and don’t touch anything.”

He’s the first to crawl through, all of them waiting for him to reach the other side and give them his okay to follow. 

Nayoung goes next, and then the rest of them. Mingyu nudges Seungkwan to go before him and Wonwoo. 

“Go on.” He mutters, pushing Wonwoo to the ground once Seungkwan made it to the other side safely.

Mingyu can feel that something bad is about to happen; one of the big rubble pieces slips an inch, and there’s a cracking sound from above.

Wonwoo is already halfway inside when another worrying crunch causes the stones to slip.

“Mingyu, stay where you are!” Someone shouts and Mingyu just acts on instinct; reaches out and grips Wonwoo’s sweater, pulling him back with all his strength right before what’s left of the ceiling comes crashing down. 

Wonwoo lands on his back with a pained groan and Mingyu feels a burning pain on his arm, coughing as the debris now covers the whole passage of the tunnel.

“What the fuck happened?” Wonwoo asks, his voice cracking from all the particles in the air.

Mingyu grunts and looks at the bricks that are covering their path. 

“You almost got crushed like an ant, that’s what happened.” He sits down on the floor with a tired sigh.

“Gyu?!” He hears Seungkwan’s panicked voice.

“We’re fine.” Mingyu answers, hearing the others swear on the other side. 

“Can you push your way through?”

“Yeah, in a few days, maybe.” Mingyu huffs, trying to pull at a large piece of concrete but letting go when everything else starts slipping dangerously. He’d rather not risk getting crushed.

“Mingyu, listen.” Seungcheol speaks up. “Go back upstairs. There should be two more entrances to the tunnels further up ahead. You can’t miss them. We’ll wait for you two at the end, okay?” 

Mingyu sighs. Great. “Yeah… Yeah, okay.” 

“Be careful.” Seungcheol adds and he sounds a bit nervous, maybe about the fact that Mingyu is left alone to watch over Wonwoo, even if it’s only for a short amount of time. 

Mingyu hears Seungkwan protest for a moment, adamant on walking back upstairs and meeting Mingyu halfway, but Jihoon shuts him up harshly and he can’t help but smile at them bantering.

He lifts his arm when he hears them walk away and finally notices the rather big gash in the skin, oozing blood and burning like someone poured salt into the wound.

“Your arm.” Wonwoo says. He has a weird look on his face, one that Mingyu can’t read.

Mingyu ignores it because he – once again – has no explanation for his stupid actions.

He can’t tell Wonwoo why he stood under the falling ceiling three seconds longer just to tug Wonwoo out, can’t tell him that he injured his arm just because he had to save Wonwoo for some reason he can’t fucking figure out.

Mingyu slides his backpack from his shoulders, opening it to look for some bandages so he can patch his arm up. They’ve lost enough time as it is, they can’t afford to lounge around any longer.

“It looks bad.” Wonwoo shuffles over on his knees, taking a look at Mingyu’s arm. “You’re bleeding a lot.”

“It’s fine.” Mingyu grits out. He doesn’t want to look at Wonwoo. He doesn’t want to be stuck with Wonwoo. He wants Wonwoo as far away from himself as possible. Mingyu can’t  _deal_ with him.

He holds the bandage in place with his free hand and tries to wrap it around his arm by holding the other end with his teeth. It slips and doesn’t look like it’ll hold but it has to do for now.

Wonwoo suddenly slaps his hands away and ignores Mingyu’s glare or his attempt at pushing Wonwoo away from him.

“Don’t touch me.” Mingyu snaps, his hands shaking a bit.

Wonwoo ignores that, too, but Mingyu doesn’t miss the flash of hurt on his face at Mingyu’s words. “You have to wrap it up properly. It might get infected.”

“I can do that myself.” Mingyu tries to snatch the bandages away from Wonwoo but Wonwoo doesn’t let him. He looks up at him with a challenging look in his eyes.

“Stop bitching around and let me help you.” He says, his voice more quiet now, like he’s tired.

Wonwoo does a much better job than Mingyu; he wraps Mingyu’s arm up tightly, securing the ends like an expert with deft fingers. “There. All good.”

Mingyu looks up at him, his eyes flickering over the blood caked on Wonwoo’s lip and cheek. “You’re good at this.”  


Wonwoo meets his eyes, half of their faces completely hidden in the darkness while the rest is illuminated by Mingyu’s flashlight attached to his backpack that’s now on the ground between them. “I was training to become a paramedic before.” 

Mingyu falters at that. “You were part of the Military?” 

Wonwoo gives a curt nod of his head before he stands up. He doesn’t elaborate; not that Mingyu expects him to, but that’s already way more information than Mingyu expected. By the looks of it, Wonwoo didn’t mean to give that away either, because he’s avoiding Mingyu’s eyes while he waits for him to stand up and get ready to leave.

 

So they go back upstairs and Mingyu has to admit he doesn’t feel too comfortable about having Wonwoo walk ahead of him without anyone else to protect him. 

The same feeling from before comes back, something feeling… odd about the entire situation. 

And things seem fine for a while. Wonwoo isn't doing anything suspicious and Mingyu's almost sure he's just being paranoid, that is until he notices the boy glancing to his right several times.

Mingyu narrows his eyes and if he didn’t pay attention, he wouldn’t have noticed Wonwoo slowing down gradually where the hall parts into the right side of the museum through a giant arch. 

Wonwoo suddenly stops walking _again_ and Mingyu is more than just done at this point. 

“What the _fuck_ are you doing—“

Just as he’s about to reach out and harshly grip Wonwoo’s arm, Wonwoo twists it and hits Mingyu’s head with something hard, distracting him enough to run. 

Mingyu ignores the sharp pain in the side of his head, something warm trickling down his temple, his eyes barely noticing the split rock on the ground before he stands up straight again and takes off after Wonwoo.

He’s _fast._ Wonwoo is so fast Mingyu has a hard time catching up with him despite always having been one of the fastest runners back at the military camp. 

A smirk takes over Mingyu’s face when he finally does catch up with the boy. He won’t be able to shoot him when he’s moving so fast, and they need the guy alive anyway, so he pushes himself to run faster. 

Wonwoo pulls at a heavy looking wooden display and if Mingyu wasn’t trained enough, he would’ve stopped running in order not to get crushed beneath it, but he just forces himself to run faster and slides underneath it before it comes crashing down. 

He hears Wonwoo curse and smiles wider when he realizes that they’re nearing another, smaller hall, the only way out being the one they’re running through right now.

It’s a dead-end. 

But Wonwoo seems to have other plans; he runs towards one of the windows and Mingyu sees him angling his shoulder in it’s direction. It only takes him a second to understand what he’s about to do.

They’re only on the first floor, Wonwoo would definitely survive a fall like that. 

Mingyu swears and runs until he feels his sides burn, hand reaching out and grabbing Wonwoo’s shirt in the last fucking moment before he can crash through the window.

The force of it hauls Wonwoo back and to the ground, Mingyu following him and holding him down. Wonwoo is kicking and fighting back; he even manages to land a punch on Mingyu’s cheek and okay, for a scrawny guy like that he sure can pack a punch. 

Mingyu manages to grip his wrists and pins them to the ground, sitting on Wonwoo’s legs with his whole weight until Wonwoo finally gives up and sags to the ground in exhaustion, both of them panting.

“That was a really stupid move.” Mingyu grits out, still trying to catch his breath. Some of the blood from the scrape on his temple drips down on Wonwoo’s already blood caked sweater. 

Wonwoo just stares up at him, looking absolutely tired and helpless. “Please.” He says, shaking his head. “Please let me go.” 

Mingyu presses Wonwoo’s boney wrists harder against the floor. “Yeah, sure. Go right ahead.” He scoffs. “Come on, man, you can’t be _that_ stupid.” 

“You don’t understand.” Wonwoo suddenly looks like he’s close to tears and Mingyu’s expression falters, his grip on the boy loosening. “She— She needs me. I have to go back to her, please—“

He doesn’t get to finish his sentence because something makes a sound that has both of them freezing. Mingyu snaps his head up and next thing he knows, he’s being tackled to the ground by an infected.

Mingyu presses his forearm to it’s throat while it snarls and snaps it’s jaw like a wild animal, struggling to kick the thing off of him. His gun has slipped from his grasp and he’s too busy trying not to get bitten by the infected to look where it is, hand blindly searching for it while adrenaline spreads through his body like wildfire. 

He hears something metallic dragging across the floor, like his gun is being picked up and footsteps running away. 

Wonwoo ran away.

_Fucking hell._

Of course he would; it’s not like the guy cares if Mingyu lives or not. Wonwoo wanted to escape and this was the perfect opportunity.

A part of Mingyu wants to hate the boy for it, wants to rip his dick off for being such a damn coward and leaving him here to die, but then again, he can’t really blame him either.

Mingyu is struggling to reach for his knife in his pocket, his right arm growing weak because that thing is unnaturally strong and absolutely unrelenting. “Come on.” He grunts, his fingers almost grasping the pocket knife when suddenly, there’s a loud gunshot and the infected on top of him goes lifeless with a gurgling sound. 

Mingyu is panting and pushes the thing off of him, scrambling into a sitting position. Wonwoo is standing there with Mingyu’s gun held in one hand, still aiming at the now dead infected, like he’s done it many times before; shot someone, or something. 

He watches how Wonwoo slowly moves to aim his gun at Mingyu instead, and his breath stutters. 

Wonwoo is looking at him with empty eyes, his chest heaving and Mingyu glares back, already calculating his options to take him out before he can pull the trigger.

But then Wonwoo turns the gun around in his hand with a quick motion. 

“Here.” He says, waiting for Mingyu to take it.

Mingyu stares at him, unmoving and surprised, but he quickly snaps out of it and grabs the gun before Wonwoo changes his mind. He gets up and dusts himself off, making sure that he didn’t accidentally get scraped or bitten and didn’t notice it in the heat of the moment. 

Once he’s done, he looks up at Wonwoo again, meeting the others’ eyes. 

“You okay?” Wonwoo asks. 

Mingyu simply stares at Wonwoo with wide eyes. 

Why the _fuck_ did Wonwoo turn back and save his ass?

“Why did you do that?” He asks. He’s not asking why Wonwoo ran away; it’s no rocket science.

_You could’ve escaped_ goes unsaid, but Wonwoo understands Mingyu’s question anyway.

Wonwoo blinks at him, gnawing on his lower lip when he shrugs. “Why did you give me your food yesterday?”

Good point.

Mingyu startles at the question and they both stare at each other for a moment but then Mingyu remembers that he has a brain and decides to use it. 

He steps forward and grabs Wonwoo’s wrists, reaching into his pocket where he still has the rope from yesterday and starts tying it around them.

“If you expect me to let you go for this, forget it. I… I can’t.” Mingyu says, looking at Wonwoo like he’s seeing him for the first time once he makes sure that the knot is secure but not tight enough to cut off the blood circulation.

“I know. I don’t expect you to.” Wonwoo gives him a tired smile and Mingyu has so many damn questions but his only goal right now is to find the others so he doesn’t have to be alone with Wonwoo any longer, because it’s already starting to mess with his mind. 

“Let’s go.” He says, and Wonwoo silently follows him. 

 

 

“Don’t try to run away again.” Mingyu mutters, not really feeling too good about dragging Wonwoo around like a dog on a leash, but he doesn’t have another choice. He can’t risk Wonwoo pulling a stunt like that again. “Who’s waiting for you?” He asks after a while, when curiosity gets the best of him. “You said she needs you. Who is she?” 

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t.” Mingyu snaps immediately. “Forget it. It’s better if you don’t tell me.” 

They walk in silence for a while, Wonwoo still making sounds of awe whenever they pass something that looks either really old or really fancy. The guy is seriously like another person now that he isn’t on the brink of dying anymore. 

Mingyu reaches into the side of his bag, remembering that Wonwoo hasn’t had a drink ever since they woke up this morning. He holds the bottle to Wonwoo’s lips, waiting for him to drink with a strange look in his eyes.

That sad mixture between confusion and fear, like he’s not sure if he can trust Mingyu or not. 

And Mingyu almost wants to tell him _not_ to trust him, because he’s confused himself, and he doesn’t trust himself anymore either at this point. 

“My sister.” Wonwoo mumbles quietly while Mingyu is searching for the next door that will take them back to the tunnels. 

Mingyu glances at Wonwoo in surprise, eyes flickering over the boy’s profile, his dark and tousled hair. “You have a sister?”

Wonwoo nods. “She’s… She’s my twin.” He clears his throat. “She doesn’t know I’m still alive.” 

“How come?” Mingyu carefully asks, not sure why Wonwoo is talking to him at all, let alone reveal such intimate information about himself. But then again, who says Wonwoo isn’t lying?

Who says this isn’t just a trap to gain Mingyu’s sympathy only to stab him in the back later on?

“She was with me when I got bitten.” Wonwoo explains, and all of a sudden, he looks extremely small. His collar has slipped a little, revealing the corners of a wound on his shoulder. Mingyu wants to see it; wants to see the bite, but he keeps silent. “I didn’t want her to be around when I turned, so I made her leave without me. But then, well, I didn’t turn.”

“Is that when the others found you?” 

Wonwoo looks up at him and nods. “Yeah.” 

“What would you have done if you turned?”

Wonwoo glances at the gun in Mingyu’s hands and then back up at him again, and Mingyu tenses, knowing very well what that means.

He looks into Wonwoo’s eyes for another moment, unforgiving and suspicious to no end. He _wants_ to believe him, because if that’s true, if Wonwoo does have a sister out there, Mingyu wouldn’t be able to fight the sympathy boiling beneath his skin even if he tried. 

_He’s lying. This is just a trick. Don’t fall for it._

Mingyu clears his throat and looks away. 

They don’t talk much and Mingyu grows increasingly annoyed when he fails to spot the door Seungcheol was talking about. It’s already been fifteen minuter and he’s pretty sure they’re nearing the end of the museum by now. 

It doesn’t help that Wonwoo always has to stop to stare at _everything._ It makes Mingyu grow paranoid, expecting the boy to run off again all the damn time.

“Can you stop _stopping_ to look at everything?” Mingyu snaps at him when Wonwoo reaches his tied wrists out to touch the glass where a blue crystal is placed behind.

“But this stuff is so cool.” Wonwoo pouts. 

He fucking _pouts_!

Mingyu shakes the image out of his head and scoffs. “What are you, twelve?”

Wonwoo ignores him, his eyes tracing the shape of the crystal. “Do you think this was expensive? Back then?”

“How the fuck would I know?” Mingyu grunts and only feels moderately bad when he tugs on the rope, making Wonwoo stumble. “Stop touching it. The others are waiting.”

“Why’re you so uptight?” Wonwoo turns around, scowling at him. “Oh, yeah. _Soldier_. Forgot.”

Mingyu grabs his arm, and pushes him forward. “Just keep walking.”

 

 

They eventually find another way to the tunnels, and from there it only takes them a few minutes to find the others.

They are all waiting for them, sitting on the ground, chatting to each other and Seungkwan’s the first one to spot them, scrambling to stand up and hurry towards them.

“Are you guys okay?” Seungkwan asks, his eyes first moving to check Mingyu for injuries and then Wonwoo. He frowns when he sees the ropes tied around Wonwoo’s wrists and Mingyu curses himself for not taking them off before getting here.

He reaches out to untie them before the others notice but it’s already too late.

“Why are his hands tied up?” Minghao wants to know, peering over Seungkwan’s shoulders at them.

“What the hell happened?” Soonyoung asks, slowly approaching them, his eyes flickering back and forth between them and Wonwoo’s tied up wrists before something like understanding twists his features into an angry glare. “Did that fucker try to run away?” 

“No.” Mingyu shakes his head, ignoring how Wonwoo widens his eyes, ignoring how his mind is screaming at him to stop being so stupid and just tell them what happened. It’s going to bite him in the ass later if he lies to them now— “No, I just thought I’d be easier to keep him in check on my own this way.”

Soonyoung narrows his eyes. “Then what the fuck took you both so long?”

Mingyu licks his lips nervously. “I wanted to look at some stuff. I’ve never been in a museum before.” 

“Wow.” Soonyoung mutters. “You really _are_ an idiot, aren’t you?”

They stare at each other for a while, everyone around them seemingly holding their breaths, and Mingyu’s gaze turns into a glare soon enough.

“Is that true, you freak?” Soonyoung asks, pushing Mingyu out of the way and stepping closer to Wonwoo. He grins, raising his gun to press it right between Wonwoo’s eyebrows. “Because I’m pretty sure I heard a gunshot up there.” He glances at Mingyu who feels anger rise inside his chest.

“I told you what the hell happened. Lower your gun.” Mingyu snaps, anger getting the best of him when he grips Wonwoo’s arm to pull him closer into his side and away from the gun at his head.

Seungkwan’s eyes widen at the action. Minghao just starts grinning and everyone else looks relatively confused by what’s happening.

Mingyu can feel his pulse racing, especially with how Soonyoung is staring him down and Wonwoo’s curious eyes glued to his cheek. 

“What the fuck, man.” Soonyoung scoffs, eyes trailing to Mingyu’s hand curled around Wonwoo’s arm. “Did he suck your dick up there or something?” 

“Soonyoung, cut it out. We don’t have time for it. Let’s get moving.” If Seungcheol didn’t intervene there, Mingyu would’ve punched that smirk right out of Soonyoung’s face.

Seungcheol gives Mingyu and Wonwoo a long look before nodding his head and walking away.

Mingyu silently unties the rope from Wonwoo’s wrists, his ears burning when he feels the boy staring at him  like a lost puppy once his wrists are free, rubbing at the reddened skin. 

Mingyu only briefly allows himself to meet the boy’s eyes before he silently motions him to walk ahead.

Seungkwan hands him a napkin a moment later, pointing at the blood on Mingyu’s temple. “Those displays up there sure are dangerous, aren’t they?” He asks with a knowing smile and Mingyu just grunts taking the napkin to dab the blood away.

He’s just… confused. This isn’t how he was trained. One of the most important rules he’s learned in Military school was to never do anything behind your team’s back.

His eyes flicker up to Wonwoo’s back, frustration making his eyebrows knit together.

Nothing about this guy makes sense and Mingyu’s never liked things he couldn’t understand. He’s never been a good student, so he always despised school. But he’s always been an amazing soldier, the fastest, the strongest, the most clever when it came to taking out the enemy during practice, so naturally, he liked being soldier.

So no, he doesn’t understand why he did what he just did. But it doesn’t mean anything. He just wanted to avoid another conflict that could’ve gotten Wonwoo injured and made him slow down on their journey.

That’s all.

 

 

 

By the time they make it out of the tunnels, it’s raining again. 

Seungcheol’s plan is to walk down the highway until they reach a small town where they’ll spend the night. 

Mingyu can live with their current arrangement; Seungcheol being the leader of their group, even though Seungkwan and him often look for Jihoon’s approval whenever Seungcheol shares his opinion or plans. 

Jihoon’s a natural leader himself so Mingyu’s a little taken aback by how easily he accepts Seungcheol’s position. He thinks it has more to do with the fact that they both have similar personalities, agreeing on most things anyway so it doesn’t really matter who ends up making the big decisions. 

“Who is this friend of yours?” Jihoon asks Seungcheol eventually. 

They’re walking in some sort of formation they seemed to have fallen into; Seungcheol and Jihoon at the front with Nayoung occasionally joining them, Soonyoung and Jun on the right behind them, and then Mingyu, Seungkwan, Minghao and Wonwoo at the back. 

Jun is keeping Soonyoung away from Mingyu and Wonwoo, and Mingyu is thankful for it. He’s not too keen on using violence but Soonyoung’s been acting crazy ever since they met and Mingyu honestly won’t hesitate to defend himself if the other should come at him like that again. 

“His name’s Jeonghan.” Seungcheol explains. “He actually used to part of our group but he left a while ago.”

“Why?”

“His boyfriend was with us too.” Seungcheol sighs and looks at the ground. “He died. It… was a freak accident.” 

“Oh.” Jihoon clears his throat. “Sorry to hear that.” 

Seungcheol gives him a kind smile before looking away again. “Jeonghan will help us. He’s a good person, so don’t worry about that.” 

Jihoon looks thoughtful for a second before he says something that surprises Mingyu. “Alright. I trust you.” 

 

 

 

The town they arrive at feels - if even possible - even more dead than the one before. There is zero noise once they climb over the fence that separates the highway from the town’s grounds and Mingyu can _feel_ some of the life leaving everyone’s bodies when they take in the dead scenery in front of them.

Rusted cars are scattered everywhere, the buildings are grey, the colors chipping away, but they still look intact. Just abandoned and empty, which is somehow even worse.

Because if the buildings are broken down, you can delude yourself into thinking _hey, people left because the buildings are inhabitable_ but no. The buildings are fine, the town seems okay.

There are just no people left.

“Fucking hell.” Minghao mutters, tilting his back and looking at the sky like he’s waiting for some sort of higher power to come and fix this crippling mess.

“Come on guys.” Nayoung sighs, patting Minghao’s shoulder comfortingly before she starts walking ahead. “Let’s find somewhere to spend the night.” 

Mingyu wets his dry lips, his legs aching a little from walking for hours straight and looks at his best friend. Their clothes are wet, their hair matted with rain and sweat. 

Seungkwan’s been holding up well. He hasn’t complained once. He gives Mingyu a reassuring smile and follows Minghao down the hill where the boy waits for him. 

Mingyu narrows his eyes when Minghao gently takes Seungkwan’s hand to help him down. The fucker has the audacity to wink at Mingyu, a sly smirk on his face.

No one would notice if Mingyu killed him, right? Wonwoo sure wouldn’t tell anyone.

Speaking of… He’s just standing there right next to Mingyu, eyes trailing over the town like he’s looking for something.

Is he looking for his sister? 

Wonwoo notices him staring and turns to lock their gazes, his eyes tired, and they just stare at each other for a moment. 

“Where did she go?” Mingyu asks. 

Something in Wonwoo’s expression crumbles, but he catches himself quickly, shaking his head. “I don’t know.” 

 

 

Nayoung finds a two-story house that is pretty well equipped; the windows are all boarded up and all the exit doors have heavy looking security locks and it’s basically as good as it’s gonna get for them. 

Mingyu doubts anything’s going to attack them tonight since there are no signs of other survivors or infected in this area but he knows better than being casual about their safety.

He tries not to look at the previous owners’ belongings and is glad to see that the family either didn’t have many pictures put up in their house or they took them with them when they left. Mingyu doesn’t want to deal with the natural questions that would come up as soon as he saw their pictures.

Is this little child still alive?

Did they turn into infected?

And other things like: What was this family like before all hell broke lose? Did they play board games on that table? Did they have movie nights in this living room? 

It’s enough to drive a person crazy. 

Jun seems to agree, because he goes around in the living room and flips all the pictures around, giving Mingyu a tight smile when he catches his eyes from afar. 

“Don’t go upstairs.” Soonyoung mutters when he walks back down from where he was doing a quick check-up upstairs. He looks a little pale in the face and Mingyu basically suspects the worst. 

Seungcheol walks to him and hugs him, and Soonyoung lets himself be calmed down by the older boy and for a fraction of a second, Mingyu feels bad for Soonyoung, no matter how annoying that guy is. 

They’ve all went through loss, but fresh wounds always hurt more, and Nayoung told him that the guy is still dealing with the loss of that kid.

“We’ll all sleep in the living room.” Seungcheol says. “It’s better to stay together anyway.” 

The dinner looks the same as yesterday, but it tastes a little better, especially since Jun and Nayoung had a kitchen to use with pots and some old salt and pepper. 

The atmosphere is better once they’re sitting in the somewhat cosy living room, the couch cushions and blankets they managed to find all piled on the floor. It’s dark inside, but Jun found some empty milk jugs and attached their flashlights to them to turn them into to makeshift lanterns.

Mingyu is sitting between Seungkwan and Jun, listening to all sorts of adventures Minghao and Soonyoung went through together.

Wonwoo is behind Mingyu even though Seungcheol and a few others insisted on him joining them but Wonwoo shook his head and Mingyu, well, he gets it.

They must look like hypocrites, feeding him, trying to treat him like he’s part of them when they’re doing such a cruel thing to him.

Seungkwan is currently telling everyone one of his lame jokes (Minghao laughs at every single one of them, even if they’re obviously not funny) and Mingyu can’t stop himself from turning to look at Wonwoo over his shoulders.

He’s just sitting there, slumped over and looking so  _small_. He's pushing around the food in his plate, and Mingyu’s eyes trail over hands, the cuts there, the sore skin around his wrists. He definitely needs a new sweater; the hoodie he's wearing might've been green at one point but now it's just brown with dirt and dried blood, cuts and holes in the fabric that can't possibly protect him from the cold. The bruises on his face still haven’t started to fade either and it all just looks painful. He also has an old scar in the corner of his chin, even paler than his already fair skin, and Mingyu wonders where he got it from.

Wonwoo must feel Mingyu’s gaze on him, because he lifts his head and meet Mingyu’s eyes, blinking at him almost a little curiously. 

No one’s paying attention to them anyway, so Mingyu just thinks _screw it_ and opens his mouth. “Aren’t you hungry?” 

Wonwoo looks surprised that Mingyu actually talked to him and shakes his head. “Do you want it?”

“Huh?” Mingyu’s breath stutters a little bit. “No. You need to eat.” 

“I’m full, though.” Wonwoo shrugs. He pushes his plate closer to Mingyu. “You can have it.” 

Mingyu isn’t even close to being full. He could eat at least three more plates full of those gross beans but they have to ration their food and Nayoung already gave him an extra spoonful earlier. 

“Are you sure?”

Wonwoo rolls his eyes and nudges the plate closer. “Take it.” 

So Mingyu does. He turns around a little so his right side is facing the others while his left is turned towards Wonwoo. 

He eats the beans quickly and when he puts the plate town, realizes that Wonwoo is watching him silently.

Mingyu rubs the back of his hand over his mouth, his eyes never leaving Wonwoo’s face and once again can’t help but question Wonwoo’s motives. 

Was this his way of thanking him for not ratting him out earlier? 

Or is this all just part of his plan to win Mingyu’s trust and use it against him later on? 

Fucking hell. Mingyu never used to worry so much about _anything_ back at the Military base. It’s only been two days and his mind is filled with thoughts about this strange boy.

He reaches for his bag before he can think better of it, pulling out a few lose bandages which he hands Wonwoo. Wonwoo looks at them like Mingyu is handing him condoms instead. 

"For your wrists." Mingyu says, taking in the dumbfounded expression on Wonwoo's face as he takes the clean bandages from Mingyu's hand. Their skin brushes and Wonwoo's feels ice cold, which makes something twist inside of Mingyu again. "And that was a king from Egypt."

"What?" Wonwoo asks, looking at him in confusion.

"The golden statue, in the museum. The one you were looking at." Mingyu feels his neck get hot the longer Wonwoo stares at him, his eyes unrelenting and dark.

"How do you know?" Wonwoo asks quietly.

"It said so on the tag." Mingyu says, watching closely how a corner of Wonwoo's mouth tugs up into a barely there smile.

Mingyu just clears his throat and forces himself to look away, turning his back to Wonwoo again to focus his attention on the only people that should matter to him.

Wonwoo will be gone soon, but the others might stick around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i haven't forgotten about this story!! i'll try to keep the updates regular and hopefully the chapters will be longer lol, writing is hard :') anyway, i hope you guys had a good start into the new year! surround yourself with good people and take care ♡
> 
> (also the title for this is from [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoKvVqvTfA4) song if you wanted to know ^^)


	4. Chapter 4

 

 

The puppy whines in fear when the car rattles, so Mingyu pulls it on his lap and strokes it’s soft, white fur.

“Hey, little pup. You don’t gotta be scared.” Mingyu coos at the way the little puppy snuggles against his sweater. “My dad’s the best driver in the world. You’re safe!”

“That’s right I am! If you type in _the best driver in the world,_ my name’s the first thing that pops up. Don’t look that up, though.” Someone speaks and Mingyu looks up, grinning. The voice belongs to a man, it’s deep and soothing, and the man laughs from where he’s sitting in the driver’s seat.

Mingyu tries to look at his face but it’s— it seems to be blurred out. Maybe the sun is too bright. 

“That’s strange.” Someone else says. This voice is a lot softer, thin and melodic. Like an angel! “I typed that in Sébastien Loeb comes up—“

“Hey, I told you not to look it up.” The man grumbles. Both their faces are so brightly lit up by the sun shining through the windshield that Mingyu has to squint his eyes in fear of getting blinded. “The search engines are all broken, Mingyu. Just trust your dad, okay?”

Mingyu smiles. “I trust you.”

“That’s it, kiddo. He takes after me @£$!&” And here his dad says a name, but his voice gets so garbled that Mingyu can’t hear the name. “…doesn’t he?”

“He sure does, darling.” 

Mingyu looks out the window, frowning a little when he can’t see anything but that same bright light surrounding them. There are no streets and no landscapes. Just a very bright, golden shimmering light.

“Dad?” Mingyu asks, feeling a little off all of a sudden. “What’s going on?”

“What do you mean, champ?”

“What is that light?”

“What light?” 

“It’s everywhere—“ Mingyu presses his nose up against the window. “Don’t you see it?”

“There’s no light, kiddo.” His dad says. “It’s dark here.”

“What?” Mingyu turns to look at his parents again, and sure enough, the lights disappear. They disappear and the only source of light that is left is coming from their car’s headlights, driving through pitch black nothingness. “… Mom?” Mingyu presses the whimpering puppy closer to his chest.

“Honey, it’s okay, don’t worry about us, we’re okay—“

And out of nowhere, two new headlights appear in front of them, speeding closer so fast Mingyu doesn’t even have enough time to open his mouth before he gets thrown back into his seat so fast he loses all of his senses. His fingers try to hold on to the crying puppy but the car flips and crashes into the ground—

Mingyu’s eyes snap open, and he finds himself lying on a wooden floor, drenched in his own sweat, his chest heaving with a feeling of utter horror and devastation still lingering in his bones. 

It’s followed by the familiar, void in his chest. He sits up and takes a deep breath, rubbing at his eyes to try and chase away the images his dream left behind.

The sky is covered in what looks to be a thin sheet of grey clouds when Mingyu steps out of the house before most of the others have woken up.

It’s still cold enough for his breath to puff out in tiny clouds and Mingyu could really do with a hot shower right now. He can’t even remember the last time he took a proper shower. 

He once read and old book about human behaviour and he remembers a part where the author explained how some people who like long and hot showers tend to do it out of loneliness.

As in, the warmth of the water is supposed to replace the warmth of another human body. Like a hug. 

Mingyu sits down on the steps of the house and just stares ahead, his mind still replaying his dream, and his chest feels so tight he can barely breathe.

He snaps his head back when he hears the door open behind him, Jun stepping out while he’s slipping on his backpack, sleep still evident in his eyes.

“Morning.” He speaks around a yawn.

Mingyu just nods his head and turns to face the street and houses in front of them. “Morning.”

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“No.” Mingyu shakes his head, moving to the side so Jun can sit down next to him on the steps. 

Jun pulls something out of his pocket, a squashed pack of Luckies. The red Lucky Strike symbol is faded but Mingyu recognizes it because it’s the brand of cigarettes Jiyong preferred to smoke back at the Military base. 

There are three sticks left and Jun tilts the pack in a silent offer but Mingyu hesitatingly shakes his head. 

“I don’t smoke.”

“I don’t either.” Jun shrugs but pulls out a stick nonetheless and proceeds to light it up with a match. Mingyu silently watches him take a drag and blow the smoke out and something about the way his shoulders relax seems extremely tempting, especially with Mingyu’s nerves rubbed so damn raw because of those never ending dreams. 

So he takes a drag and ends up choking on the smoke, coughing so loud he fears it’s going to attract some Infected roaming around.

Jun just laughs and takes the stick away from him, gently patting his back until Mingyu stops coughing. “Okay, no more cigarettes for you.” 

Mingyu grumbles under his breath, eyes stinging with tears, but there’s something calming about Jun’s presence. Maybe it’s because the guy is older and how he always takes care of Minghao. 

They sit in silence for the next few minutes, listening to the eery silence around them. 

There are no birds chirping, no people chatting inside all of those houses, and Mingyu’s ears long to hear just the engine of one single damn car, but there’s absolutely nothing, like someone just _muted_ the entire world.

“You alright?” Jun asks after a while, his expression carefully guarded but there’s still a hint of concern in his eyes. It’s such a familiar look, because these days, no one wants people to think they care since it makes them vulnerable. 

Mingyu doesn’t answer for a few seconds before he parts his lips to speak. “What were your parents’ names?” 

Jun seems to be taken aback by the sudden question and he takes his time to answer, slowly stubbing his cigarette out on the steps before he tilts his head towards the sky. 

“Yanlin and Huifen.” He answers, nodding his head with a tight expression on his face before turning to look at Mingyu again. “What about yours?”

Mingyu’s eyes start welling up with tears, no matter how hard he tries to hold them back. He grits his teeth together, trying to get a grip before he starts _crying_ but his shoulders end up shaking. “I don’t remember.” 

Jun just silently looks at him for a moment before sighing deeply and reaching out to squeeze Mingyu’s shoulder, gentle and caring. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t utter out a hollow “Sorry” but instead just offers silent comfort, which ends up being exactly what Mingyu needs to calm down. 

It isn’t until they hear the voices of the others inside that Mingyu realizes how they’ve been sitting in that position for quite a while. He wipes his nose on the back of his hand and hesitatingly looks up at Jun, half of him expecting to find a judging look on the guy’s face.

But Jun just gives him a smile and gives him a few pats on the back. “You’re okay, yeah?” 

Mingyu gulps and nods his head. “Sorry, I just—“

“Nah, man. Don’t apologize.” Jun shakes his head. “Pain… grief. Sets us apart from those monsters. It’s what keeps you human, yeah? Don’t lose that.” 

Mingyu feels like a child, despite all the training he’s been through, despite him technically being a senior soldier to all of those kids back at the base. “I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right.” Jun winks at him, grinning when Mingyu snorts in amusement. He gets up and reaches his hand out for Mingyu to take, pulling him up to his feet. 

 

They go back inside together, most of the others having woken up by now. 

Mingyu’s eyes automatically glance to the far left of the living room, where Wonwoo was sleeping curled up on some old newspapers. He’s awake now, sitting with his back pressed against the wall, his eyes carefully observing what the others are up to. 

His arms and legs are still tied up, which they kind of agreed on last night since the majority of them don’t trust Wonwoo not to run away or worse, kill all of them in their sleep. 

Surprisingly, Seungkwan, Minghao and Jun were against it, which led to a huge fight between them and mostly Soonyoung while Mingyu just stood by the side watching like the fucking coward he is.

What _would_ he have said, if he’d spoken up?

He stares at the bandages on Wonwoo’s wrists under the thick ropes and the first thought that comes to his mind is _I gotta take them off._

Wonwoo seems to notice Mingyu’s gaze on him, turning his head and locking their eyes from across the room. And maybe it’s just Mingyu’s mind playing tricks on him, but he thinks he sees Wonwoo’s shoulders drop in relief. 

He contemplates ignoring the guy and just help the others gather up their stuff so they can leave, but his feet are carrying him over to Wonwoo before he can stop himself. Wonwoo watches him attentively, looking conflicted, like he doesn’t know if he wants Mingyu to come closer or stay away. 

Mingyu opens his mouth to tell him to get up but Wonwoo beats him to it by speaking first.

“Where did you go?”

Mingyu snaps his mouth shut, his eyebrows rising in surprise, hands stopping midway where he was about to untie the ropes from around Wonwoo’s ankles. “What?”

“You left.” Wonwoo speaks quietly so the others won’t hear them. Mingyu checks to see if anyone’s watching them but some are still asleep while the others are busy getting dressed for the road. 

“You were awake?” Mingyu asks.

Wonwoo hesitatingly nods his head. 

Mingyu’s eyes flicker over Wonwoo’s face, the smear of dirt on his cheek. The bandages around his wrists he put on last night… They make Mingyu’s cheeks burn in embarrassment and confusion over his own action. “Why the hell do you care where I went?”

They both just stare at each other for a moment before Wonwoo gives him an answer. “Don’t leave me alone with them.” 

That definitely wasn’t what Mingyu was expecting to hear. Wonwoo’s words make him gape like an idiot. “Excuse me?” 

“Did I stutter?” Wonwoo mutters, red spreading on his cheeks when he tries to avoid Mingyu’s eyes. “Don’t fucking leave me alone with them when I’m not able to defend myself.” 

Mingyu blinks, his mind trying to make sense of Wonwoo’s words before it clicks. He unties the ropes around Wonwoo’s ankles and moves on to do the same for his wrists, all the while avoiding Wonwoo’s eyes. “You’re scared of them?”

“That’s not it—“

“But Seungkwan’s here.”

“He’s still asleep.”

And sure enough, when Mingyu turns to check, his best friend is snoring with his head lying on an equally passed out Minghao’s lap on the bottom of the couch. Mingyu’s eyes focus on them for a little longer before he slowly turns to face Wonwoo again. 

“I’m not your bodyguard.” Mingyu says, frowning, and rips the ropes off a little too harshly. “And they won’t do anything to you. They need you alive.”

Wonwoo looks at him for a moment longer before shaking his head. ”You don’t get it, you idiot.”

And Mingyu feels the same frustration boil inside of him he’s already felt a few times before, because of Wonwoo. Again. He grits his teeth together, willing himself to just shut up and turn around and leave but he can’t bring himself to do that.

“What the fuck are you implying, then?” Mingyu asks.

Wonwoo licks his cracked lips and Mingyu’s eyes flicker to follow the movement on instinct. He looks away before Wonwoo can catch him doing it. “You won’t hurt me.”

“How do you know that?”

Wonwoo waits until Mingyu meets his eyes and then he lifts a wrist, showing Mingyu the bandage there. “You’re a good person.” 

Mingyu’s neck prickles. He feels irritated and infinitely confused, which seems to be a feeling that has manifested itself in Mingyu ever-since they stumbled across this group and Wonwoo. Like yeah, okay, he’s always had trouble with numbers and letters at school, but this is a different sort of confusion. “Whenever I help you, I instantly regret it. How does that make me a good person?”

“I’ll take anything.” Wonwoo smiles and shrugs his shoulders tiredly. 

Mingyu feels something twitch in his chest. He knows he has a napkin in his pocket, a napkin he could use to wipe the dirt from Wonwoo’s cheek. He curls his fingers into fists instead. “I’m not your bodyguard.” He repeats. “Don’t— Don’t fucking trust me. Or anyone, for that matter. Except for Seungkwan. Seungkwan’s… He’s good.” _Stop talking, you moron, just fucking stop—_ “He likes you. But he likes everyone, so…”

Wonwoo’s smile grows wider. “I like him too.” 

They look at each other for a few tense seconds and when Mingyu stares into Wonwoo’s dark eyes he briefly thinks there’s a bunch of stories there just waiting to be told and the flash of pain that hits him in the chest when he realizes that he’ll probably never hear those stories makes him stand up and leave without another word.

 

 

 

The next three days are a repetition of the first two: Walking, climbing, hiding, killing a few infected here and there and hoping that the next town will be just as abandoned as the previous one.

They were lucky up until now, not having encountered other survivors because while Seungcheol and his friends seem nice enough, most people who aren’t infected have turned into another type of monster.

Like, they might still seem human, but really, they aren’t.

You wouldn’t really call cannibals human, would you?

Yeah.

Mingyu doesn’t talk much for the majority of the time, silently observing his surroundings and trying to get a grip on the inner conflict he’s been having ever since Seungkwan and Jihoon announced their departure from the military.

He’s mostly still keeping a close eye on Wonwoo, mainly because no one else really seems to be bothered to give Mingyu a break and take the dude off of his hands for a while.

After their rather odd conversation that morning, Wonwoo has turned strangely quiet as well. He more or less stopped bothering Mingyu and they haven’t exchanged any words except for quiet commands and instructions from Mingyu’s side. He seems to be back to his former self, the one that didn’t lose a word and basically looked like he wanted to kill all of them but instead of shooting them murderous glares, Wonwoo is busy taking in everything around him.

He’s like a puppy that gets distracted by everything, standing still to be amazed by a mural or pout over a dead cat on the ground. Mingyu has to try really hard not to groan in frustration whenever he has to stop and wait for Wonwoo to be done and start walking again.

They’ve already fallen behind of the group because of it and no matter how many times Mingyu snaps at Wonwoo to stop slowing them down so much, it doesn’t seem like Wonwoo is even listening to him.

Currently Wonwoo is squatting on the ground to pick up a fucking flower and Mingyu is seconds away from stomping his feet like a child because he doesn’t have the nerve to do this anymore.

He just tilts his head back and takes a few calming breaths, deciding to let Wonwoo pick up his stupid flowers and instead turns to look at the others a few houses in front of them.

They’re walking in their usual formations and Mingyu can’t help but frown when he sees Seungkwan and Minghao at the back, when he spots how their hands keep brushing between them and how Minghao playfully shoves Seungkwan, making his best friend laugh.

“What’s got you frowning like that?” Wonwoo appears next to him out of nowhere, holding a few sad looking daisies in his hand.

Mingyu doesn’t answer even though he’s a little surprised that Wonwoo seems to have decided to talk to him again. His eyes are still fixed on his best friend and this dude that just can’t seem to stop himself from being all over him all the damn time. Wonwoo follows his line of sight, his eyebrows rising when he puts the puzzle pieces together.

“I didn’t know you were in love with Seungkwan.”

Mingyu turns his head so fast he nearly gives himself whiplash. “What the fuck? I’m not!”

Wonwoo shrugs. “You look jealous, though.”

“I’m not  _jealous._ ” Mingyu snaps at him.

“Then what’s the problem?”

“None of your fucking business.”

Wonwoo blinks at him for another moment before rolling his eyes and starts to walk, muttering something along the lines of “Emotionally constipated”.

Mingyu sighs and catches up with him, his grip on his gun tighter than usual.

“You should be happy for him.” Wonwoo mumbles after a beat of silence. “Seungkwan’s a good person. He deserves to be happy, don’t you think?”

“Of course he deserves to be happy.” Mingyu shakes his head and looks away, his teeth gritted together. “But this is just stupid.”

“What?” Wonwoo wants to know. “Love?”

“Oh come on.” Mingyu rolls his eyes. “That’s not love. They met five days ago.”

Wonwoo snorts. “Dude, the world has fucking ended. Death’s basically lurking around every corner. Who cares about  _time_ anymore?”

“You don’t know him like I do, okay?” Mingyu shakes his head, not even sure why he bothers to answer Wonwoo, let alone talk to him at all. “Seungkwan gets attached really fast. He’ll just end up getting his heart broken or something stupid like that if something happens to that prick.” That prick being Minghao and his ridiculous man bun.

Wonwoo rolls his eyes again. He seems to be doing that a lot around Mingyu. “You’re an idiot.”

“I still have half a mind to kill you so don’t test me.”

“I’m not scared of you.” Wonwoo says. “So, what you’re saying is that he shouldn’t allow himself to love just because there’s a chance of something happening to them in the future?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, that’s just stupid.”

“I don’t care what you think. I know I’m right.”

“But you love Seungkwan, too, don’t you?”

“That’s different.” Mingyu takes a calming breath. This is like explaining the basics of life to a child. “We grew up together, we’re like brothers. It’s inevitable.”

“And this isn’t?” He points to Seungkwan and Minghao, who have their pinkies linked together now. Mingyu wants to take his shoe off and throw it at Minghao’s stupid head.

“Of course it’s not. You  _chose_ to love someone romantically.”

“Man, you got a lot to learn.” Wonwoo snickers at him. “Now I wish I was around to watch you fall in love with someone just to laugh at your misery.” Wonwoo’s laughing now, fucking  _giggles_ slipping out of his mouth.

Mingyu shifts awkwardly. “Stop laughing.” He grumbles.

He glances at the boy and Wonwoo just smiles at him. “Stop being so serious. You’d think you’re the one who’s about to die.”

Mingyu’s face falls before he can control it. He suddenly imagines Wonwoo’s sister, how they could be reunited right now If it wasn’t for them forcing Wonwoo to play hero and save the world.

“Why aren’t you trying to run away again?” Mingyu asks, not able to stop himself, his voice low. 

“If… If I had family out there, I’d do anything to get back to them.”

Wonwoo’s smile fades and he looks at Mingyu for another second before lowering his face. “What would I tell her?”

Mingyu blinks at him, trying to catch his eyes but Wonwoo refuses to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“What do I tell her, if I go back now?” Wonwoo asks. “That I’m immune, that I could potentially save the world but I’m too much of a coward to do anything about it?”

“She’s your sister.” Mingyu says. “She wouldn’t care about that as long as she gets you back.”

Wonwoo looks at him again, smiling a little bit. “I know she wouldn’t hold it against me. But I can’t live with that. Do you wanna know what she wished for on our last birthday?”

Mingyu is so focused looking into Wonwoo’s eyes he trips over a bump on the ground, blushing furiously when Wonwoo chuckles at him clumsiness. “What did she wish for?”

“She said she wanted there to be a cure. She said she wants a life where she doesn’t have to live in fear every single day.” Wonwoo shrugs. “She’s everything I have. I don’t… I don’t mind dying if it means she survives.”

Mingyu’s chest suddenly hurts and he panics for a second, thinking he’s having a heart attack until he realizes that it’s Wonwoo that caused the pain, and the thought alone is enough to have him trip over his feet again.

“Hey are you okay?” Wonwoo asks. “You keep fucking tripping. Are you dehydrated or something?”

“I’m fine!”

Wonwoo jumps at Mingyu’s sudden outburst but starts laughing again. “You’re a weirdo.”

“You’re one to talk.” Mingyu huffs, giving the flowers in Wonwoo’s hand a judging look.

Wonwoo shrugs and tugs one daisy out and just reaches out to stick the stem of the flower into the muzzle of Mingyu’s gun.

Mingyu sighs but can’t bring himself to glare any longer when Wonwoo grins up at him. His nose scrunches up when he smiles and seriously… can he not?

Mingyu pulls the flower out and has half a mind to throw it away, but Wonwoo looks kind of sad and Mingyu just— he puts the flower inside his pocket, blushing like an idiot when Wonwoo himself looks surprised by the action.

The smug smile on Wonwoo’s face doesn’t leave for a while after that.

 

They arrive at the destination a few hours later just as dusk is falling.

Orvin is another small-town that was spared by the military. No abandoned quarantine zones, no dead tanks and broken down barriers.

Just a small cluster of once colorful houses that now look like someone put a monochrome filter over each of them. There’s more nature to it than other places; a lot of trees and bushes, tiny rivers formed over the years.

But it doesn’t look like anyone’s still living there, is Mingyu’s first thought. One look into the others’ faces confirms that they’re thinking the same.

“Seungcheol.” Jun says when they slowly start to approach the single metal fence that seems to be surrounding the entire town; a weak attempt to keep infected out.

Or any kind of unwanted visitors.

“You sure he’s still here?” Jun mutters lowly. “It looks dead.”

Seungcheol nods his head, his eyes narrowed as he looks for a way around the fence. It’s barbed at the top so climbing’s not an option. “He’s on his own. What did you expect to find here, Jun?”

“Do you think he’s still in the same house?”

“He wouldn’t move from there.” Seungcheol smiles, but it’s dimmed, and Mingyu feels like he’s missing something.

There is a gap between the wires on top, and the single metal door in the fence is blocked by what looks to be an axe. After making sure that there aren’t any infected lurking around on the other side, Mingyu heaves Minghao up by lacing his fingers together and letting the other use his palm as leverage.

Minghao jumps down on the other side and opens the door for them. He smirks at Seungkwan when he walks through and Mingyu punches him in the shoulder with a straight face because of it, just because.

They walk through the deserted alleys and streets for a few minutes before they hear a sound that makes all of them cover and hold their weapons ready.

“Fucking clickers?” Jihoon whispers. “I thought your friend had this town locked down or something.”

“They must’ve found a way in.” Seungcheol mutters, his eyes alert when they start moving again. “Come on. His house is right around the corner.”

Mingyu looks over his shoulders like a reflex, checking if Wonwoo is still following them and sure enough, the guy is lagging behind and Mingyu is pretty sure he’s humming a song under his breath.

Mingyu’s eyes stay on him for a second longer before he forces himself to turn around and walk off. He needs to stop letting himself be distracted by Wonwoo so much but no matter how hard he tries, he always ends up checking if Wonwoo is… okay.

And everytime he hears Jiyong’s raspy voice shouting in his hear.

 

_“Where the fuck is your baloney brain today, Kim?”_

_“I wasn’t—“_

_“You weren’t thinking? Ah, what a surprise! You aren’t capable of thinking, are you? What? Are you getting angry? Are you going to blow up on me? I heard you can’t even read a single page without turning into a st-t-t-uttering mess—”_

_“Shut the fuck up!”_

_“Then focus, shithead!” Jiyong curses. “If it doesn’t have anything to do with your survival and the enemies’ death, you throw that thought away! Got it?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“Repeat it.”_

_“Survive and kill the enemy.”_

 

Mingyu shakes his head to focus on his surroundings again and that’s when he notices how everyone has stopped walking, which is also when he hears _them_. Infected, a bunch of them.

“Fuck.” Jihoon mutters, raising his gun. “That sounds like a goddamn horde.” 

Mingyu turns to look at Wonwoo and tries not to think about the relief washing through him when he sees that Wonwoo is standing right behind him.

“I wouldn’t have to hide behind you if you gave me a fucking gun.” Wonwoo mutters. 

Mingyu shushes him and focuses on the sounds of infected coming closer fast.

“Here we go.” Nayoung mutters and honestly, she sounds _excited_ and Mingyu’s seen her kill plenty times by now; she always seems to have the time of her life when she’s decapitating those things. 

The first two infected that stumble out of the alley in front of them get shot down by them before they even notice their group standing there, but what happens next puzzles all of them.

They hear the infected screaming and screeching but it’s overpowered by something that sounds like… flames? 

Smoke starts to rise in the air, the stench of burned flesh stinging Mingyu's nose and that sound goes on for another ten seconds before it stops, and they all just stand there, confused and alert and glaring at the alley hidden from their view.

A man steps out from behind the house, over the corpses on the ground, his face covered by a clown mask. 

A fucking clown mask.

“What the fuck, dude.” Jihoon mutters, looking extremely tense with his gun pointed at the guy’s head. 

They all stand like that for a moment; the guy standing there with his creepy clown mask, a massive flame thrower balanced on his shoulders and Mingyu and the others holding him at gunpoint. 

The guy lifts his hand and they all move, too, expecting him to attack, but he ends up pulling his mask off, revealing a handsome face, framed by jet-black hair. 

It’s only when Seungcheol and a few others lower their guns that Mingyu realizes that this is their guy.

That’s Jeonghan. 

“And once again, I’m saving your ass.” Jeonghan says, his eyes solely focused on Seungcheol who seems to be kind of frozen. 

Seungcheol lets out something that sounds like a mixture between a sob and a laugh and then—

Jeonghan walks up to him and kisses him on the mouth.

Mingyu nearly drops his gun and he’s pretty sure he hears Wonwoo choke on his spit behind him.

His eyes flicker to Nayoung in confusion but she’s already walking away, closely followed by a pissed off looking Soonyoung.

“Well, that’s kinda awkward.” Seungkwan mutters, eyes like saucers.

Mingyu can only agree.

 

 

Jeonghan takes them to his house after a quick introduction. The whole town is booby-trapped but Jeonghan’s obviously memorized all of the spots and warns them before they can set anything off. 

An uncomfortable silence follows them all the way to the other side of the town. At first, Jeonghan tries to hold Seungcheol’s hand, but Seungcheol moves it away with a pained look on his face and jesus, it’s just horrible.

Jeonghan looks hurt, Nayoung looks angry and close to tears and Seungcheol just seems completely lost. 

Thank god Mingyu doesn’t have to deal with shit like that. As if this world isn’t fucked up enough, he honestly doesn’t think he has the nerve to put up with emotional distress like that right there. 

The house Jeonghan lives in has three stories and is surrounded by a metal fence that leaves all of them in awe.

“It’s electrically charged.” Jeonghan says, looking infinitely smug as he fiddles with what looks to be a fuse panel. 

“It’s _what_?” Seungkwan asks, gaping at the fence that is definitely man-made. “Where do you get electricity from—“ He stops when Minghao points at the roof of the house. There’s a massive tank attached to it, which is probably used to collect rain water, and it’s covered in huge, navy plates. “Solar power. Of course. Amazing.” Seungkwan exclaims.

Once the fence isn’t charged anymore, Jeonghan lets all of them step inside and proceeds to lock it. “I have running water. You look like you haven’t had a shower in a while, so if you guys want to—“

Before he even finishes his sentence, Soonyoung and Minghao take off running towards the house, pushing each other on their way to get to the shower first. 

“The water doesn’t run inside.” Jeonghan chuckles. He points at the small shed in the garden and nods his head to Jun. “Go on, I’ll bring you towels.”  


Jun grins smugly and trudges over to the shed, whistling while the other two are angrily shouting inside after realizing their mistake. 

They settle down inside while each of them take their turns to shower. Jeonghan’s running around distributing fresh towels and clean clothes for everyone and brings them food, like actual food with fresh vegetables. He’s growing his own fruit, too and Mingyu can’t stop being impressed.

They all dive into the food like a bunch of pigs.

Mingyu would lick the plate but he’s a visitor in this house so he refrains from doing it.

Wonwoo is the last one left that hasn’t taken a shower yet and Mingyu can tell he feels uncomfortable, like he doesn’t think he’s allowed to or something. Jeonghan still doesn’t know what’s going on so he’s confused when he hands Wonwoo a towel and clothes and Wonwoo just looks at the items almost anxiously.

“Hurry up or the heater will turn off and you’ll be freezing your balls off out there.”

“He doesn’t need to shower.” Soonyoung mutters from the corner.

“Oh shut the fuck up.” Mingyu snaps immediately. “Wonwoo, go take a shower.”

Soonyoung scowls at him. “Who the hell are you to decide—“

“Look you prick, you’ve been testing me for the past couple of days and I’m literally _this_ close to bashing your stupid skull in—“ If Seungkwan didn’t reach out to grab Mingyu’s hand, Mingyu probably would’ve went through with his threat.

“Okay, kids!” Jeonghan chuckles nervously, giving Soonyoung a confused look. They obviously know each other from when Jeonghan was part of their group. “What’s up with you?”

“Nothing.” Soonyoung just shakes his head and continues eating his food, shooting Wonwoo a dirty look when he ends up taking the things from Jeonghan’s hands.

“It’s okay.” Seungkwan smiles at Wonwoo. “Just go, okay? It’s fine.”

Wonwoo looks really small all of a sudden and his eyes flicker to meet Mingyu’s, like he’s waiting for Mingyu’s approval, and they just quietly look at each other for a second before Mingyu sighs and looks away.

The awkward silence is broken by Nayoung who excuses herself once she’s done eating and goes upstairs after Jeonghan shows her a bedroom she can use. She gives him a smile but it doesn’t reach her eyes and Mingyu can’t help but feel sorry for her even though he doesn’t quite understand the current situation. 

“Not that I’m not happy to see you guys.” Jeonghan says once he finally sits down and stops tending to their needs. “But what brings you all the way here?” 

Seungcheol looks up from his plate, his eyes so focused on Jeonghan that the latter ends up blushing and averting his eyes. “I’m not sure if you’re going to believe us.” 

Jeonghan looks back at him, calm and attentive. “Try me.” 

And so Seungcheol tells him about Wonwoo, about him being immune and about their plan to take him to the fireflies.

Jeonghan sits and listens to all of it, nodding his head along with the whole story. “Are you done?” 

“Yeah, that’s it.” Seungcheol says.

Jeonghan bursts out laughing. “Jesus, Cheollie. You always had a good sense of humour but this seriously takes the cake. For a second I almost believed you—“

“He’s telling the truth.” Jun speaks up, shrugging when Jeonghan shoots him an incredulous look. “You know I never lie.” He adds, winking at the flabbergasted looking guy. 

Jeonghan’s eyes move over everyone’s face in the room before settling back on Seungcheol. “You’re serious.”

“No shit, sherlock.” Minghao snorts, catching a grape with his mouth after throwing it in the air. 

“That’s why we need a car.” Seungcheol continues. “You used to have a working truck. I was hoping you still have it and we could use it to—“

“I have it.” Jeonghan interrupts quickly, his eyes suddenly hard. “So you’re leaving again.” 

Seungcheol gives Jeonghan a helpless look, swallowing heavily. “Jeonghan…” 

“Yeah. Okay.” Jeonghan clears his throat and gets up. “I’m gonna have to fix some stuff with the battery tomorrow but you should be okay to go by noon.” He gets up and leaves the room, running a hand through his hair like he’s tired. Seungcheol looks close to having a breakdown and he gets up to follow Jeonghan outside.

“What on earth is going on?” Seungkwan whisper shouts, probably not wanting Nayoung to hear them upstairs. 

“It’s a mess.” Jun sighs, leaning back on the couch. “It’s always been messy with them.”

“I don’t get it.” Jihoon speaks up. “I thought you said— you said Jeonghan left because his boyfriend passed away but he’s acting like… like Seungcheol and him—“

“Well, it’s true.” Minghao answers. “Jeonghan and Jisoo… they were, like, ridiculously in love. But they kind of screwed around with Seungcheol from time to time. I don’t know man, they were like— they were all boyfriends in a way. What’s it called? A love triangle?”

“Polygamy.” Soonyoung supplies helpfully. He’s been strangely quiet anyway, and he looks angrier than usual. His eyes also keep checking the stairs, like he’s contemplating going upstairs to check up on Nayoung.

It’s too much to take for Mingyu’s mind. He’s about to fall asleep anyway because he’s so clean and he’s wearing soft clothes that aren’t stained with blood and smell like death and his belly is very full and satisfied. 

Also Seungkwan is massaging his scalp and Mingyu’s seriously a second away from purring like a fucking cat. 

“When Jisoo died, Jeonghan obviously turned to Seungcheol for comfort. But I guess it wasn’t enough, so he left. And well… then Nayoung came into the picture, and now we have this mess.” Jun finishes off the story, shrugging his shoulders.

Seungkwan puffs out his cheeks. “So what now? Shouldn’t we help them solve this?”

“Aw, sweet pea, no.” Minghao snickers, shooting Seungkwan a fond look and Mingyu thinks he tastes bile on the back of his throat when Seungkwan flips Minghao off with the same warm look in his eyes. “You don’t meddle with others’ love affairs. They’re adults. They’ll figure it out on their own.” 

Wonwoo comes back just then, placing his dirty clothes on top of the pile on the floor before quietly crossing the room and sitting down behind Mingyu. 

Minghao smirks at the scene, laughing when Mingyu shoots him a glare. Mingyu turns to look at Wonwoo, his eyes trailing over his form.

His face is clear of dirt and blood, making the still evident bruises and cuts stand out even more against his pale skin. The clothes are a little lose on him but they make him look a lot younger and all in all, Wonwoo looks kind of cute— 

Blood rushes to Mingyu’s cheeks at the thought and it gets even worse when Wonwoo lifts his head to give Mingyu a questioning look. 

“The shirt’s too big, isn’t it?” Wonwoo mumbles almost a bit self consciously, tugging at the lose collar.

“No it’s fine.” Mingyu shakes his head before he realizes what he’s doing. He clears his throat and turns his back to Wonwoo again, trying to ignore the many eyes that are suddenly on him. 

When Jeonghan and Seungcheol come back a while later, both of their eyes looking a little red, Jeonghan wants to talk to Wonwoo the most.

He asks him a lot of questions and Wonwoo doesn’t seem to mind, being as chatty as he is he’s probably glad that someone’s showing interest for once. 

“You sound like a doctor.” Mingyu mutters after almost twenty minutes of Jeonghan interrogating Wonwoo about his physical reactions to the bite. “Were you part of the fireflies or something?” 

Jeonghan leans back from where he was hunched over on the ground and looks at Mingyu. “I was, actually.”

Mingyu didn’t expect that answer. “So you know what they’re going to do with him?” Mingyu glances at Wonwoo who only briefly meets Mingyu’s eyes before looking at the ground again. 

Jeonghan stares at Mingyu and there’s a flicker of something in his eyes, like an inner conflict, and he glances at Seungcheol before he answers. “They will need a blood sample or two. Maybe a biopsy so they can analyze it.”

“But what’s going to happen to him?” Seungkwan asks, his voice urgent. 

Jeonghan smiles. “What do you mean? He’ll be okay to go after that. Did you think they’re going to kill him?” 

Everyone in the room stares at Jeonghan like he just grew a second head. 

“Oh, you did.” Jeonghan chuckles and there it is again, that strange thing in his eyes. Mingyu finds himself tensing up while everyone else in the room seems to relax at the news, the prospect of Wonwoo making it out alive at the end. 

Wonwoo looks confused. “But… I thought…”

“Wonwoo.” Jeonghan shakes his head. That’s pity in his eyes. _Pity_. How does no one else see it? “You’ll be fine.” 

“Okay, you know what would be nice right now? Some fucking alcohol.” Minghao groans. “We gotta celebrate this somehow.”

“I have whiskey.” Jeonghan winks at him and Minghao makes a weird noise, looking close to tears.

So they drink.

The others do, at least. Mingyu only takes a few sips, not able to get rid of the nasty feeling at the pit of his stomach. 

Wonwoo looks lost in thought behind him, fiddling with the hem of his sweater and Mingyu considers saying something to him, but he doesn’t know what.

“I think we should stay together after all of this is done.” Minghao mumbles quietly, sounding beyond tipsy at this point. “Become a family. Except for Seungkwan and me, because that would be gross considering I really want to—” He giggles and Jun presses his brother’s face into the ground to get him to stop talking. “But I mean it. You, too, Wonwoo. You’d stay with us, right? We’re cool people, and you’re cool too. I think it would be cool.” 

Mingyu glances at him over his shoulder, Wonwoo lifting his head and giving a small smile. 

“There’s someone waiting for me.” He says quietly, eyes finding Mingyu’s, and his smile turns more genuine and Mingyu feels his chest ache. Wonwoo’s probably already thinking about seeing his sister again after all of this and Mingyu thinks he should be happy for him but he feels _terrible_.

“Ohhh, do you have a girl?” Seungkwan wiggles his eyebrows.

“Family.” Is all Wonwoo says.

Minghao and the others go on about their future plans but Mingyu can’t keep up with the conversation. That look on Jeonghan’s face won’t let him go and he thinks the guy knows what Mingyu is thinking because he looks like a deer caught in the headlights whenever their eyes meet from across the room. 

Jeonghan seems like a nice guy. Why the fuck would he lie to them?

Mingyu doesn’t know, and the question lingers in his mind until he falls asleep that night.

 

 

x

 

**(** “Why didn’t you tell them the fucking truth?” Soonyoung hisses after dragging Jeonghan into the dark hallway after making sure everyone’s fallen asleep.

“Tell them the truth?” Jeonghan asks. “Was I supposed to tell the poor guy that he’s going to get taken apart like fucking livestock?”

“Yes!” Soonyoung groans. “Jesus, Jeonghan, like I don’t give a flying fuck about that guy but you can’t tell him he’s gonna make it when you know he’ll be murdered in there!”

“He’s…” Jeonghan’s voice cracks. “Look, I know it’s fucking heartless, okay? But he’s immune! Do you know how long we’ve been waiting for this? You have to get him to the fireflies. If anything happens to him, if he escapes, that’s it. We don’t get another shot at this. I know what’s going to happen. One of them in there is going to start caring about him, and if they knew that the kid won’t make it, they’d refuse to hand him in when the time comes and everything would be ruined. This is the only way to make sure they’ll take him there in one piece.”

“Dude… dude I can’t—“

“It’s one life.” Jeonghan whispers. “One life to save what’s left of the world’s population.” 

There’s a moment of silence before Soonyoung speaks again. “I’m going to tell him.”  


“No, you won’t. I know you.” Jeonghan says. “You’re scared and you’re selfish and you want the world to be normal again and that’s why you’re actually thankful that I was he fucking asshole that lied to that poor bastard’s face in there.” **)**

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey mingyu how about you wake up because jeonghan was talking about you in that last part *winkwink* 
> 
> i hope it's obvious that the last part in brackets wasn't mingyu's POV since he was asleep then, it's just an important scene you guys needed to witness for the future... and i know this chapter wasn't eventful which i would apologize for but i'm saving my apologies for the next chapters :) 
> 
> (i read all the comments and i will try to start replying again i'm sorry, but i'm glad you're enjoying it so far ♡)


	5. Chapter 5

 

 

 

Mingyu grunts at the feeling of something nudging his face repeatedly. He swats it away with the back of his hand and tries to go back to sleep, but the pestering resumes, even harder then before.

He lifts his head with an aggravated groan and barely manages to crack an eye open from how tired he is. 

Wonwoo’s sitting propped up against the wall, his leg still stretched out from where he was pressing the sole of his dirty shoe into Mingyu’s forehead. 

“What?” Mingyu snaps, dropping his head again in hopes of getting another hour of sleep in before they have to get going. 

“I have to pee.” 

“I’m _sleeping_.”

“I’ve been holding it in for two hours. Get up.”  


Mingyu squeezes his eyes shut tighter, like he can ignore Wonwoo’s existence like that. “Don’t boss me around.” 

Wonwoo stays quiet for a moment before speaking again. “Please?” 

Mingyu groans again, burying his face in the soft pillow Jeonghan provided them with yesterday night. He whines and is actually a second away from kicking his legs but he ends up pushing himself off the ground and into a sitting position. 

Everyone else is still fast asleep; the sun isn’t even up yet. 

He gets up and crosses the small space between him and Wonwoo, leaning down to untie the ropes around Wonwoo’s ankles and wrists. He had to take the bandages off to shower yesterday so the bruised skin in visible again. It really has no chance of healing when it gets rubbed raw by the brittle ropes every night. 

He leads Wonwoo outside since Jeonghan specifically told them not to use the toilet because it’ll end up getting clogged with no running water to flush it. 

“Hurry up.” Mingyu mumbles, rubbing a palm over his face and shuddering against the cool air. Wonwoo moves to walk away but Mingyu grabs his arm and points at the bush to the left of them. “Do it where I can see you.”

“I’m not peeing in front of you.” Wonwoo says, giving him an irritated look.

“And why the fuck not?”

“I don’t know about you but I tend to not pull my dick out in front of just anyone.” Wonwoo gives him a deadpan look. 

“Stop being so difficult. We’re both dudes.” 

Wonwoo blinks at him for a moment. “Well… some dudes are into dudes, you know?”  


Mingyu snorts. “I sure as hell am not, so just—” He trails off when Wonwoo’s stare grows intense, like he’s waiting for Mingyu to catch on to something. And once it clicks, Mingyu’s cheeks start burning. Jesus, he’s really an idiot, isn’t he? 

“Oh.” Mingyu clears his throat and averts his eyes. “Just… hurry up.”

Wonwoo shakes his head, the amusement evident on his face, but he turns around and pulls his pants down and there’s really no reason for Mingyu to act like this.

When you go to an all boys’ military school, seeing a guy’s dick while he’s peeing is seriously the least indecent thing that your eyes will witness. 

So no, there’s no reason to be blushing all over the place like a prepubescent eleven year old catching the neighbours’ daughter getting changed through his bedroom windows.

“Are you done?” Mingyu asks impatiently. 

Wonwoo grumbles under his breath and is probably rolling his eyes again, but at least Mingyu can hear him zipping up his pants. “Yes. You can look again, if you’re done blushing.”

“I wasn’t blushing.” 

“Okay. Yes.”

Mingyu has half a mind to snap at him but he decides that he’s too tired so he just shoots Wonwoo a glare and turns to go back inside, his eyes landing on something in the grass a couple feet away from them. 

He walks to check out what it is out of curiosity and wishes he would’ve just left it alone. 

There are fresh flowers on the ground, neatly tied together with a red ribbon, like the red bracelet around Wonwoo’s wrist. 

Mingyu’s eyes wander up higher, to the wooden cross and the name engraved in it followed by **1995.12.30 - 2013.12.28**.

He averts his eyes and turns around to see Wonwoo stepping closer, reaching out to brush off a few dry leaves from the cross. His face is blank, eyes looking worn out around the edges as he gazes at the grave.

“Come on.” Mingyu mumbles and Wonwoo stares at the cross for another moment before faintly nodding his head. 

He walks a little closer to Mingyu on their way back, and Mingyu just lets him.

 

 

They should’ve known that things wouldn’t run as smoothly as Jeonghan made their plans out to be the previous night.

“What do you mean it’s not working?” Jihoon asks, peering inside the open hood of the pickup truck that stands in a garage a few blocks away from Jeonghan’s house. “Isn’t the battery just drained?”

“Do I look like a car mechanic to you?” Jeonghan asks, rolling his eyes.

“I still think we should give it a push down that hill.” Minghao mumbles from where he’s sitting in the open back of the pickup truck. “That’ll get the battery going, won’t it?”

“You’re a fucking genius, Hao.” Soonyoung comments, rolling his eyes. “Are you guys blind? Look at this.” He steps forward and points at the engine. “There’s a bunch of parts missing. I thought you said this car’s working, Jeonghan.”

Jeonghan leans close, frowning. “Those bastards…”

“What is it?” Seungcheol asks, peering over Jeonghan’s shoulder. Jeonghan tenses a little and Seungcheol turns to look at him and the air grows tense and kind of uncomfortable. Mingyu sees Seungcheol place his hand on Jeonghan’s arm, calming him down, and he glances at Nayoung who looks like she’s in pain, silently observing their interactions.

What a mess.

“Last week a group of survivors came here.” Jeonghan says. “I didn’t bother dealing with them because they were outnumbering me. I figured they were simply passing through.”

“They stole car parts?”

“Looks like it.” Jeonghan sighs. “It’s okay. We can get these replaced as long as we find a car that isn’t completely rusted. There are a few but I never bothered to check their engines. Let’s just hope they didn’t raid those, too.”

Mingyu is leaning against the wall of the garage, Wonwoo standing between him and Seungkwan. He’s kind of bored and listens to Seungkwan and Wonwoo’s conversation with one ear. They’re talking about their favorite mangas and Mingyu hears Wonwoo complain about the fact that he can’t get his hands on the next part of Akira or something.

“Do you read mangas?” Wonwoo suddenly asks, looking at Mingyu.

Mingyu scoffs. “No.”

Wonwoo juts his lower lip out in thought, fiddling with a red thread on his wrist, something Mingyu didn’t notice until now because it was hidden by his sleeves. It looks like those things kids used to make for their friends and wear back in the days.

“Let’s split up. There’s no use in all of us looking for them together.” Jeonghan speaks up. “I’ll show you which parts we need and we’ll just meet up here again at noon.”

Everyone agrees with it easily and Mingyu is okay with it too, until Soonyoung opens his mouth to speak. He’s not okay anymore, then.

“I’m taking Wonwoo.” He says, making everyone shoot him confused looks. Wonwoo tenses next to Mingyu.

“No.” Mingyu states before anyone can say anything else, his eyes hard on Soonyoung who glares back just as determinedly.  

Everyone seems to be taken aback by the sheer force behind that simple word escaping Mingyu’s lips, Wonwoo himself giving him a confused and wary look.

“And why the hell not?” Soonyoung wants to know, a challenging look in his eyes.

“I think it’s okay, Gyu.” Jihoon sighs, braking the tension between them. “You’ve been complaining about him anyway. Maybe you need a break.”

Mingyu wants to tell them to fuck off. He doesn’t  _trust_ this bastard in general, much less with Wonwoo’s life. He doesn’t even realize he has his fingers curled into tight fists until Wonwoo nudges him with his elbow.

“It’s fine.” Wonwoo shrugs. “I’ll just bite his ass if he tries anything funny.”

And it’s funny, it’s a joke, but it only makes Mingyu’s mood drop even more.

Mingyu stares at the ground, trying to calm down. He has half a mind to slip one of his pocket knives into Wonwoo’s palm when no one’s looking because while he knows that Wonwoo can handle himself, it’s not fair he doesn’t have anything to use in emergency situations.

And that subsequently means his only source of protection will be Soonyoung.

“Just…” Mingyu starts when everyone else is getting ready to leave, turning to Wonwoo, awkward and unable to meet the boy’s eyes. “I don’t trust him.”

_Be careful_ is what he really wants to say.

Wonwoo doesn’t say anything until Mingyu finally looks at him. There’s something strange in Wonwoo’s gaze on Mingyu. 

“You be careful, too.” Wonwoo says, like he can read Mingyu’s mind, and Mingyu’s stomach does a flip, making him feel slightly nauseous.

He quickly turns away and leaves, a frown etched into his features.

Maybe it’s not a bad idea, to get away from Wonwoo for a while. Mingyu doesn’t even know why he got so angry just now. Wonwoo’s a grown up guy; he’s had basic military training so he sure as hell isn’t helpless.

Mingyu was stupid to… to worry about him.

So they split up into groups of two, except for Minghao and Jun, who pull Nayoung into their middle, flanking her like bodyguards. She looks like she was crying last night but she still pinches both brothers’ nipples through their shirts, looking a lot less gloomy when both of them whimper in pain.

The atmosphere is still very awkward and tense, mainly caused by the nervous glances Seungcheol shoots Nayoung’s way all the time and her pretending not to notice them. Mingyu just hopes they sort it out before they leave.

Seungkwan is putting a few things in Mingyu’s bag behind him when Jun walks up to them, leaning close to Mingyu’s ear.

“Can you guys keep an eye out for something while you’re out there? Just in case we don’t manage to find anything.” He asks.

Mingyu nods his head, mildly confused. “For what?”

“It’s, uhm.” He clears his throat. “It’s for Nayoung. She… needs some stuff. She ran out.”

“I don’t get it.” Mingyu mumbles.

“Fucking hell.” Jun swears quietly. “ _Girl_ stuff, Mingyu.”

“What kind of—“

“She’s on her period you idiot.”

“O-Oh!” Mingyu clamps his mouth shut, feeling his neck heat up. His eyes flicker over to where Nayoung is standing. She looks alright but there’s a crease between her eyebrows and she’s kind of curled forward where she’s leaning against the wall, like she’s in mild pain. Minghao looks a little helpless standing next to her, rubbing his hand up and down her arm comfortingly, which earns him a thankful smile from her. “Yeah, okay. Sure.”

Jun snorts and ruffles his hair. “Good boy.”

Mingyu seriously hates all of them.

 

“We’ll meet here again in two hours. Unless you run into infected it shouldn’t take you longer than one hour to cover your area.” Jeonghan says, laying out a map of the town on the hood of the car where everyone’s gathered around. He points out a few areas for each of them cover, asking if they’re okay with it.

There are a few grunts of agreement.

“You can’t get lost. The town’s really not that big.” Jeonghan sighs and puts the map away again. “If you do get lost, just go and wait by the water tower. It’s visible from everywhere, you can’t miss it.”

Mingyu gets distracted by Soonyoung, who is practically glaring daggers at him, and it’s provoking, to say the least. Soonyoung, smirks and before Seungkwan can stop him, Mingyu is walking over to him, grabbing his arm and dragging him away from a confused looking Wonwoo.

“If anything happens to him, I won’t hold back to do the same to you.” Mingyu says once they’re out of hearing range.

Soonyoung regards him with a blank look. “Damn, Jeonghan was right.” He says, pity written across his face.

Mingyu furrows his eyebrows. “Right about what?”

“Nothing.” Soonyoung shakes his head and grits his teeth together. “I’m not gonna get him killed, so don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

“Come on, Gyu.” Seungkwan says, a hand curled around Mingyu’s wrist. It’s like he can sense whenever the level of Mingyu’s aggravation rises, always quick to try and calm him down before it gets out of hand.

Mingyu’s eyes leave Soonyoung and briefly stop on Wonwoo, who only looks up and shoots Mingyu a grin that makes him want to grab Wonwoo and just take him with them instead of leaving him with Soonyoung.

 

The search for the missing engine pieces is just absolutely boring. Mingyu is really tempted to just lie down and take a nap in the middle of the street.

It’s evident just how bored he is when he almost walks right into a trap, if it wasn’t for Seungkwan being so attentive, holding him back with a hand.

Sure enough, his feet are only a few centimetres away from touching a thin, almost invisible wire. Another one of Jeonghan’s genius, explosive traps. He looks up at Seungkwan, eyes taking in his best friend’s smug smile. “Good job.”

Seungkwan smiles wider at that. “Thanks. Hao showed me how to spot them.”

Mingyu resists the urge to roll his eyes. “ _Hao._ Are you on nickname-basis now? When’s the wedding?”

He doesn’t miss the way Seungkwan’s cheeks turn red. “Everyone calls him Hao.”

“I don’t.”

“Yeah but you’re a dick, so.”

Mingyu playfully shoves him, snickering when Seungkwan swears under his breath, the little charm on his necklace catching the sunlight.

Mingyu’s hand naturally moves to feel his own necklace through his shirt, relieved to find that it’s still there and Seungkwan’s smile turns soft at the gesture.

It’s the only birthday present Mingyu’s ever given him, and it was obviously Seungkwan’s idea because he likes to be sappy about things like that. So he asked Mingyu to make something to remind them of their friendship.

And see, Mingyu may be good handling knives and guns, but man does he suck when it comes to crafting stuff. So what he did was find two small pennies, smooth down the engravings on both sides and replace them with an M on one penny and an S on the other one. He drilled a hole into them and slid them on some cheap necklace chains he managed to find.

They’re not pretty and definitely not worth crying over, but it’s what Seungkwan did when Mingyu gave him the necklace with the M engraved in the penny.

“So… you like him?” Mingyu finally forces himself to ask. This is a first for them, too.

Because while Mingyu did kind of fool around with some girls whenever they were allowed to “mingle” at the military camps, Seungkwan refrained from doing those things.

He’s just too sensitive to do those things when they don’t mean anything on an emotional level, so for him to kind of… flirt with Minghao like this, it has to mean something, right?

“I don’t know.” Seungkwan shrugs, trailing his index finger down the muzzle of his gun. Mingyu frowns at the sight. Somehow, he’s just never liked the sight of Seungkwan carrying a gun. “I think I just like how upfront he is with his feelings.”

Which is true. That guy is basically walking around with heart eyes whenever he sees Seungkwan.

“And it’s just really easy to talk to him. He’s kind.” Seungkwan says. “Plus his piercings and his cute bun are really cool!” 

“Okay first of all, that man bun isn’t cool, it looks fucking stupid.” Mingyu huffs, dodging the pebble Seungkwan throws at him. “And him being kind isn’t a valid enough reason. Jihoon is kind, Jun is also kind, hell _I’m_ kind—”

“Yes but I don’t want to have sex with you.”

Mingyu trips and chokes at the same time. “What?!”

“What?” Seungkwan asks innocently.

He just looks so shameless and they’ve only been out here for like a week and his best friend’s already corrupted and Mingyu is about to have an aneurism right there.

“No.” Mingyu shakes his head. “This is wrong. It’s only been five days and I didn’t agree to this, he doesn’t even have my blessings yet—“

“Oh shut up.” Seungkwan rolls his eyes. “You’re like a year older than me, I don’t need your blessings.” He trails off, hesitating before speaking again. “But it would be nice if you’d be happy for me, anyway.”

His voice gets tiny at the end, and Mingyu’s anger (even if it wasn’t entirely genuine to begin with) diminishes instantly. “I’m always happy for you.” Mingyu mumbles. “I just think it’s happening too fast. You barely know him.”

“Why though? You keep going on about how it’s stupid and reckless to fall in love because we could be dead tomorrow.” Seungkwan says. “But you’re wrong. I don’t want to die without having kissed him. Because I’d regret it, I know I would.”

Mingyu stays silent for a second, willing away the nasty feeling in his gut at just the thought of something happening to his best friend. “… you already kissed?”

Seungkwan scoffs. “That’s the only thing you got out of that? But no, we haven’t. Because of  _you_.”

“What?” Mingyu laughs. “Why me?”

“Because he’s scared of you.” Seungkwan rolls his eyes. “He says you keep pointing your gun at him with a creepy smile on your face.”

_Fucking snitch._

“I only did that once but  _good_. He should be scared.” Mingyu cocks his gun, and they both laugh a little at the ridiculous look on his face.

They hear gunshots from afar and it’s like a switch gets turned in their heads, both changing their stances, raising their guns.

“Do you think they’re okay?” Seungkwan asks when they don’t hear anything else after that.

“They probably ran into infected.” Mingyu says. “Come on, let’s check out that car over there.”

There’s nothing to check out. The entire engine is missing and Mingyu slams the hood shut with a groan of frustration.

They’re more lucky with the next car, managing to find two parts that resemble the ones Jeonghan showed them. Mingyu has no idea if they’re intact but they _look_ fine. 

“Jesus.” Seungkwan mumbles when they leave the garage, looking at something above their heads in the nearby alley. “That… is gruesome.”

Mingyu follows his gaze and opens his mouth to say something but remains silent, taking in the sight in front of them.

There are a dozen infected hanging from a rope attached to a wooden plank connecting both roofs above, trapped in a net. A couch is placed at the bottom, a bottle of whiskey standing next to it and some broken arrows lying on the ground, the rest of them sticking in the bodies caught in the trap above.

Some of them are still alive despite the arrows stuck in them, twitching and moaning quietly.

“Being lonely must mess with your head.” Mingyu says, thinking about how kind Jeonghan seemed. It’s hard to imagine someone like him enjoying doing stuff like _this_ , even if those things are monsters out to get them. 

But then again, Jeonghan was wearing a freaking clown mask and walking around with a huge ass flamethrower when they first met, so it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise.

“Let’s go.” Mingyu mutters, taking Seungkwan’s hand to get him to stop looking at the scene. 

They pass a small shop (or what used to be one), and it’s then that Mingyu remembers Jun’s request from before. 

“I gotta check out something.” Mingyu explains to a confused looking Seungkwan when he walks inside the store. They’re met with the pitiable sight of torn down shelves and general emptiness aside from the dirt and garbage littering the floor. He knows their chances of actually finding anything are small but then again, this _town_ is small and definitely not a place Mingyu would’ve visited if he didn’t have any business here.

“What are we looking for?” Seungkwan asks, nudging a box of cereal on the ground only to find it empty. 

Mingyu clears his throat, cursing himself for blushing again. Why is he like this? He’s a grown up man, for god’s sake. “Pads. Or, uhm. Anything, really. Nayoung, she, uhm—“

“Is on her period?” Seungkwan finishes. “Okay, let’s see if we can find anything.” His best friend shoots him an amused and teasing look. 

Against all odds, they actually end up finding something. 

“Huh, seems like we got lucky today.” Seungkwan mumbles as he kneels down to pull out the single, green box stuck in the corner of a bottom shelf. “Wait… are these the ones for periods? They look kinda small.” 

“Let me see.” Mingyu takes the box as if he’s an expert in this area when he’s never even see a damn pad in his life. 

“I’m just saying.” Seungkwan muses, peering over his shoulder to read the packaging. “Girls back in the days used to use stuff even when they weren’t on their periods and those things aren’t meant for heavy flows.”

Mingyu furrows his eyebrows, turning to face his best friend. “How the hell do you know that?”

“Because I’m a womanizer?” 

Mingyu snorts and turns the box around in his hands, struggling to read the words. “I don’t know. It says they have wings and offer 100% protection. That sounds about right, yeah?”

“I guess so. It’s not like we have much choice.” 

So Mingyu hands the box over to Seungkwan who puts it in Mingyu’s backpack and they’re about to leave when Mingyu’s eyes catch something else on the floor. 

_No, keep walking._

He hesitates, willing himself to listen to the voice of reason within his head, but he wouldn’t be Mingyu if he actually listened to it.

So he walks over and leans down to pick it up, hoping that Seungkwan won’t notice—

“What’s that?” 

Mingyu quickly hides the thing behind his back, shrugging his shoulders. “Nothing.”

Seungkwan narrows his eyes at him and they stand like that for a few seconds before Seungkwan jumps into action and expertly retracts the item from Mingyu’s grasp. “Aha! What have we got here…” His eyebrows shoot up a little as looks at the small book in his hands. “Since when are you into mangas?”

“I’m not.”

“Then what—“ Seungkwan trails off and he goes from forming a confused O with his mouth to wearing an extremely smug smile. “Is this for _Wonwoo_?”

“What? No!” Mingyu snaps, blood immediately rushing to his cheeks. He tries to take the manga back but Seungkwan holds it out of his reach. “You’re being stupid. Why the fuck would I get him anything?”

“Because you overhead us talking this morning.” Seungkwan raises an eyebrow at him. Sometimes Mingyu really hates how good Seungkwan is at reading him. “You’re actually really fucking sweet, do you know that?”

“Shut up, you’re wrong, okay? I was just curious and wanted to look at it.” 

“Sure. Okay.”

“Fuck off.”

“Okay.” Seungkwan is still grinning at him and Mingyu growls at him, slapping the stupid manga out of his hands before he stomps out of the shop with a heated face, Seungkwan’s delighted laughter following close behind.

 

Nothing could’ve prepared anyone for the scene that unfolds when Seungkwan and Mingyu join the rest of the group later at their meeting spot. 

Mingyu notices that everyone has made it back alive, but something seems off.

His eyes flicker over the group and he frowns when he sees Soonyoung, Jeonghan and Seungcheol arguing heatedly on the side. 

Then he looks at the others, Jun, Minghao and Jihoon kind of blocking his view to the garage, talking animatedly and sounding in a hurry—

Mingyu steps closer and he finally sees what’s going on. 

Wonwoo is sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall with Nayoung pressing a towel against his shoulder, the fabric completely blood soaked. She shouts at Jun to get her something and goes back to mumbling quietly to Wonwoo, who just looks pale and really in pain.

Wonwoo spots them first, his eyes locking with Mingyu’s, and he freezes, swallowing heavily. Something in Mingyu suddenly snaps, and Wonwoo opens his mouth like he knows what’s about to happen but Mingyu is already striding towards Soonyoung, completely _shaking_ with sudden fury.

“Mingyu—“ He hears Seungkwan’s concerned voice but he can barely pay it any mind. 

He hasn’t had an attack like this in a while, has learned how to control his anger and not completely blow up like a grenade at the slightest provocation, but seeing Wonwoo like that, obviously injured and bleeding when it was Soonyoung’s responsibility to keep him safe—

“Mingyu, calm down!” Seungcheol shouts when Mingyu practically barrels into Soonyoung, pushing him so hard he ends up nearly tumbling to the ground. “Calm down—“  


“Shut up!” Mingyu snaps at him, turning to glare at Soonyoung again and before he knows it, he’s already landed a punch in Soonyoung’s face. “You fucking asshole! You said you’d keep him safe!” 

“Mingyu!” Jihoon hisses at him, grabbing his arm so hard Mingyu knows it’s going to bruise. “You need to calm the fuck down. We don’t need this right now. Wonwoo is hurt—“

Yeah, fuck! That thought only makes it worse.

“What’s your fucking problem? There couldn’t have been that many infected for you not to protect him!” Mingyu is about to punch Soonyoung again, who’s looking up at Mingyu accusingly. Why the hell is he looking at Mingyu like that? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?  


“Gyu, you’re better than this.” Seungkwan speaks behind him, his voice calm, because he’s been through this plenty times before. He knows how to calm Mingyu down. “Just… Just breathe, okay? You can control it.” 

Mingyu stumbles back, fingers curled into tight fists, his chest heaving and his vision still blurry from the sudden anger and adrenaline pumping through his veins.

Soonyoung uses the opportunity to scramble to his feet, swatting Seungcheol’s hands away when he tries to help him. He wipes the back of his hand over his blood nose but it does nothing to stop the blood flow. “Why the fuck do you care? Huh? _Shit_ you— you care about that dude enough to get into a fight, you fucking moron! Do you even know what’s going to happen—” 

“Soonyoung.” Jeonghan interrupts him, calm and collected, his tone warning.

Soonyoung glances at him, looking conflicted, his chest heaving and nose dripping with blood. “Fuck this.” He mutters, turning on his heel and walking off. 

Mingyu at this point has calmed down enough to think clearly but he still doesn’t manage to make sense of Soonyoung’s words. His eyes catch Jeonghan’s gaze and the guy just looks at Mingyu for a moment, something like pity in his eyes, before he turns around and joins the others who are busy taking care of Wonwoo’s wound. 

“Are you done?” Jihoon snaps at him, his eyes hard and cold on Mingyu. “It was an accident.”

Mingyu shakes his head, focusing on Seungkwan’s hand holding his own. “And you believe that?” 

“Wonwoo said so himself.” 

Mingyu’s eyes flicker to said person and he jumps when he finds that Wonwoo is already looking at him, his face unreadable. Jun pours something over the fresh bite on Wonwoo’s shoulder and Wonwoo flinches in pain and Mingyu wants to—

“Keep him away from me.” Mingyu says.

Jihoon furrows his eyebrows in confusion. “Who? Soonyoung?”

“No.” Mingyu lowers his head. “Wonwoo.” 

Seungkwan makes a confused sound next to him but Jihoon only takes three seconds to put two and two together; Mingyu’s sudden anger, Soonyoung’s words, Mingyu’s request just now.

He gives Mingyu a curt nod. “I’ll take over from here, okay? It’s probably better to switch from time to time, anyway.” 

Jihoon hesitates but ends up reaching out to squeezes Mingyu’s shoulder, who only nods and turns his head away from the pair of eyes he can feel burning into his skin.

 

 

The next two hours are spent with Mingyu calming down inside with Minghao and Seungkwan trying to distract him so he doesn’t go out and try to find Soonyoung again (Jun’s already looking for him). Nayoung is staying with Wonwoo while the others are trying to fix up that car.

Which, after quite some time, they finally manage to do.

“The car’s working, guys.” Jihoon says after entering the living room. “Pack up your things.” 

So they do. 

Everyone is strangely quiet, their conversations hushed, and Mingyu is just busy trying not to let his eyes wander.

But he can _feel_ Wonwoo looking, at least for the first couple of minutes they both are in the garage packing the car. It’s not until Wonwoo seems to realize that Mingyu is very obviously ignoring him that he gives up and stops trying to catch Mingyu’s gaze.

“You can come with us.” Seungcheol’s voice tears him out of his thoughts and when Mingyu looks up he realizes that everyone has fallen into an awkward silence. Jeonghan is standing there, leaning against the wall of the garage, watching all of them get ready to leave so he can be all alone in this town again. Seungcheol in front of him looks like he’s one second away from crying, a trembling hand reaching out to grasp Jeonghan’s paler one. “You don’t have to stay here on your own.”

Jeonghan looks up, a sad smile tugging on his lips. “You know I can’t leave him alone.”

Mingyu is confused for a second, but then he sees Jun avert his eyes and Minghao’s features flicker with pain, and he remembers the grave in the garden and his heart kind of aches in his chest. 

Seungcheol does start crying now. “It’s been years, please don’t—“

“I’m not leaving him alone.” Jeonghan interrupts him, his voice calm and steady, like nothing can change his mind. “Not again.” He adds, staring at the ground. 

The air is tense for a couple of seconds, Seungcheol’s eyes boring into Jeonghan’s before he lets go of his hand and turns around, not looking at any of them when he says “You go without me.”

Nayoung’s head snaps up at that, and her eyes immediately fill with tears. 

“What?” Soonyoung pushes himself off the wall, eyes narrowed. “What did you just say?”

“I’m not coming with you guys.” Seungcheol says, carefully looking up at them. “It’s… It doesn’t make sense for so many of us to go, anyway. You can do it without me just fine but I can’t—“ He struggles to go on. “I can’t leave Jeonghan.”  


“Yes, you can.” Jeonghan says, looking just as taken aback as the rest of them. ”Don’t stay here because you feel bad for me, I’m fine—“

“I love you, okay? I’m not losing you again.” Seungcheol seems to realize what he just said, because he looks at Nayoung who is wearing a completely blank face despite the tears in her eyes. “Nayoung—“ He says, walking towards her but she suddenly pulls out her gun and points it at him with a shaking arm and a daring look in her eyes. She looks _wild_.

“Uhm, Nayoung, princess let’s not—” Jun says at the sudden turn of events.

“Don’t come closer.” Nayoung says when Seungcheol approaches her even more, her voice shaking. “I don’t want to hear it.”  


“I’m sorry.” The thing is, no matter how fucked up the situation is, no matter how fucked up it is what Seungcheol is doing, he sounds so _genuine._ He sounds heartbroken and sincere and Nayoung seems to think so, too, because she lowers the gun with a faint sob, wrapping her arms around herself like it’s going to protect her from the inevitable heartbreak. “I’m so sorry.”

“Let’s just go.” She says, not sparing Seungcheol another look before she climbs into the back of the pickup truck. Seungcheol looks at her, helpless and desperate, but Soonyoung steps to the side so he’s covering Nayoung from Seungcheol’s eyes, a daring look on his face, and that’s that.

The others exchange their farewells with Jeonghan and Seungcheol but Mingyu doesn’t really listen, just offers a nod of his head to both men. He doesn’t blame Seungcheol for anything; he doesn’t think people can blame anyone for anything anymore these days. He wants to be with the person he loves, with Jeonghan and with… Jisoo.

Jeonghan and Mingyu exchange a strange look, something that lodges something heavy between Mingyu’s ribs, but he tries to shake the feeling off. 

He climbs into the back of the truck as well to join Nayoung and Minghao, the others having settled down inside the car with Jihoon driving. 

And then they leave, pulling out of the garage and into the deserted streets of the town, Seungcheol and Jeonghan growing smaller and smaller behind them with Nayoung curled up into Minghao’s side, looking worn out and smaller than she is. Mingyu has seen her taking down a bunch of infected easily, seeing her like this just feels wrong. 

He gets an idea and reaches into his backpack, pulling out the box Seungkwan and him picked up earlier and holds it out for her. 

She sniffles and looks at Mingyu first before she glances at the green box he’s handing her. “What is this?” She asks, voice cracking a bit.

Mingyu only now realizes how much of an idiot move that was. Oh well. “… Pads. They’re pads. We heard you ran out. Jun told us.”

Nayoung gives him an incredulous look, glancing back and forth between him and the pads and Minghao is just staring at Mingyu blankly, at least until Nayoung starts laughing. 

She chuckles weakly and wipes her tears off before reaching to take the box, fiddling with it in her lap. 

“That’s really kind of you. Thank you.” She mumbles, looking up at him with a smile and her brown eyes forming little crescents, and obviously she’s still sad but she looks amused and kind of happy underneath all of it, so Mingyu offers her a smile as well before leaning back and closing his eyes. 

 

 

 

They spend the rest of the day and the next one driving, only stopping to switch drivers or for toilet breaks. They don’t really get that far, not with how bad the streets are and how most of the roads have been blocked by the military. 

The atmosphere was tense at the start, mainly because they could all feel the lack of Seungcheol’s calm and authoritative presence, but Jun and Minghao started cracking jokes at one point, and the others started to laugh a little here and there, and by the time the sun starts to set the next day, things seem to be better.

The bite on Wonwoo’s shoulder wasn’t a clean one; when Soonyoung tried to help him, he ended up pulling the infected off while that thing still had it’s teeth lodged in Wonwoo’s shoulder, meaning he almost tore off some skin and tissue in the process. 

Wonwoo is in pain and there’s a big chance of the wound getting infected, which is so ironic, because obviously it’s supposed to infect Wonwoo, but not in this way. 

Mingyu is still ignoring him, no matter how hard it turns out to be. He doesn’t understand _why_ it’s so hard, it just is. It’s not like he spent every minute of the day talking to Wonwoo before this, they barely ever talked at all to each other, so this shouldn’t make that much of a difference, right? 

He looks at the others through the rearview mirror while he’s driving; most of them are asleep. Seungkwan’s head is pillowed on Minghao’s shoulder and Mingyu catches the guy reaching up and brushing Seungkwan’s bangs out of his eyes gently, a little smile grazing Minghao’s features as he does that. 

Wonwoo is fast asleep next to them. He looks a little paler than usual, and the blood from his wound has started to soak through his shirt. He stirs in his sleep when the car rattles a bit, his face twisting in pain before his eyes flutter open. 

Mingyu isn’t quick enough looking away; Wonwoo catches him, and Mingyu freezes a bit,  until the car rattles again because of how shitty the roads are and Wonwoo fails to hide the pain, squeezing his eyes shut when it jostles his injured shoulder. 

Mingyu makes a quick decision and nudges Jun next to him, startling him from where he was dozing off on the passenger seat. 

“What?” Jun asks. “What happened?” His hand shoots out to grab his gun but Mingyu assures him that everything’s fine. 

“Let’s take a break.” Mingyu says.

“Need to pee?”

“No, an actual break.” Mingyu shakes his head. “We’ve been driving for almost two days. We need some proper sleep.”

Jun looks a bit conflicted. “What about the car? If anyone sees it, it’ll be gone by tomorrow morning.”  


He’s right about that, even though the chances of anyone actually being around to spot them being very small. “Let’s find something with a garage. We’ll park it in there, if anyone tries to steal it’ll make too much noise anyway.” 

“Yeah, sure.” Jun nods his head. “Turn the headlights off though. Let’s not risk anything.”

Mingyu does as he’s told and his eyes move back to look at Wonwoo, no matter how damn hard he tries to stop himself. Wonwoo is looking out the windows, one hand holding his shoulder, and Mingyu almost forgets he’s driving until Jun slaps his cheek with the back of his hand, snickering at Mingyu’s flustered state.

They end up finding a garage that belongs to a small office. Minghao and Soonyoung secure the gate from the inside so it should technically be impossible for anyone to open it from outside, but Jun wants to put up a noise-trap anyway. Mingyu thinks it has less to do with the fact that he wants to play it safe but more with him being so damn fascinated by putting up traps.

The office is upstairs and looks like it hasn’t been touched in years, the chaos inside only minimal compared to all the other rooms they’ve been staying at. 

Jun cooks them up a stew with a pot he stole from Jeonghan’s place while the rest of them clear up some space for them to sleep. Nayoung cleans the wound on Wonwoo’s shoulder again, saying something about it looking really bad and having to use some sort of antibiotics to stop the infection. 

“Shouldn’t we stitch it together?” Minghao asks, handing her the first-aid kit they’ve been carrying around for a while now. 

“It’s too big.” Wonwoo speaks up, not even looking uncomfortable when Nayoung raises the needle in her hand. “It didn’t actually tear anything off. The skin just needs to grow together again. Just give me a pill for now. Save that for another time.” 

Right, he used to be a paramedic. 

“You had your tetanus shots, right?”  


Wonwoo just smiles at her and Nayoung rolls her eyes, putting the needle down and holding up a couple of pills until Wonwoo stops her at one particular box.

“Dude that looks painful.” Minghao mumbles, pulling a face. “And kinda gross, not gonna lie—“

“Hao, not helping!” Nayoung snaps and Minghao apologizes, fleeing the scene quietly. She changes the bandage on Wonwoo’s shoulder again, Mingyu watching her like a hawk from the side just to make sure she doesn’t mess up. 

“You look like a warrior or something.” Jun comments. “Got freaking wounds all over you.”

Wonwoo purses his lips. “These ones are gonna keep all the cute boys away, though.” He says, pointing at the bite marks on both his shoulders.

No one in the room even bats an eyelash at the comment, Nayoung chuckling and Jun winking at Wonwoo before saying “Nah, not all of them.” 

And Mingyu just kind of freezes where he was sitting and helping Jihoon set up one of those makeshift lamps, looking over to where Wonwoo is now smiling to himself, his cheeks growing crimson—

He’s blushing.

Because of Jun?

Mingyu suddenly remembers what Wonwoo told him that morning at Jeonghan’s house, and he can’t help but feel something weird nagging at his chest even though Jun isn’t even looking at Wonwoo anymore.

Like, what the fuck, why does Mingyu even care? They can do whatever they want.

“Careful, Gyu.” Jihoon warns him, frowning at him. “You’re gonna break the glass.”

Mingyu sighs and stops squeezing the glass vase so hard, feeling tired with all these stupid thoughts he’s been having.

When they sit down to eat, Mingyu can’t help but notice how little Wonwoo eats. Shouldn’t he eat more so he can stay strong? Did his injury really take that much of a toll on him?

Why the fuck is no one noticing and telling him to eat more?

It’s safe to say that Mingyu is just pissed off by the time they go to sleep and all of it just because of his own stupidity and stubbornness. He _wanted_ to get away from Wonwoo; he basically asked Jihoon to keep him away, and that’s exactly what Jihoon’s been doing for the past two days but Mingyu just doesn’t like it.

 

 

Mingyu wakes up with sweat soaked clothes and his heart hammering against his ribs violently, the images of yet another vivid dream burned into the backs of his eyelids. He sighs and closes his eyes against the darkness once he’s aware of his surroundings, his chest still heaving a little. 

It must be the middle of the night; everyone’s still asleep and it doesn’t look like the sun is coming up for another couple of hours. 

Something makes a noise in the corner of his right side and Mingyu shoots up into a sitting position, expecting the worst, like a stranger having broken in to rob them or just flat out kill them— 

He squints his eyes until he notices that the person moving next to the window isn’t an intruder. It’s just Wonwoo. 

“You have a lot of nightmares, don’t you?” Wonwoo whispers, struggling to sit up with his injured shoulder. They decided to have mercy on him and didn’t tie him up tonight and Mingyu is somewhat glad to see that Wonwoo didn’t decide to run away after all. 

Mingyu rubs at his eyes, has half a mind to ignore Wonwoo just to stand his ground, but he guesses he’s just a lot weaker than he always thought he was. “Yeah, they suck.” 

Wonwoo hums. “I know. I have them, too.”

Mingyu looks at Seungkwan sleeping next to him and decides that he won’t be able to fall asleep that quickly anyway; it always takes him a long time to calm down after a nightmare, so… he might as well just talk to Wonwoo, right? There’s nothing wrong with just talking.

So he moves over until he’s leaning against the wall next to Wonwoo, careful not to touch him anywhere. “What are yours about?” 

Wonwoo is fiddling with the red bracelet around his wrist again, and Mingyu is tempted to ask, but he knows better than that. “My parents.” Wonwoo whispers after a long time, making Mingyu tense up next to him. 

It’s quiet for a while, Mingyu not really sure what to say. They’ve never really talked about their personal lives except for that time Wonwoo mentioned his twin. And maybe they shouldn’t, they definitely shouldn’t, but Mingyu’s been having nightmares about his parents for years and years, and no one really understands how it feels and he doubts Wonwoo would—

“What happened to them?” Mingyu asks.

Wonwoo stops toying with the bracelet, and Mingyu sees his Adam’s apple bob up and down before he shakes his head. “They’re gone.” 

And he doesn’t elaborate, and Mingyu gets it, everyone has their stories they might not be willing to share so he just doesn’t ask anything else. 

They stay quiet for a while, nothing but someone’s rather obnoxious snoring interrupting the silence; Mingyu guesses it’s either Jun or Soonyoung. 

Mingyu glances at Wonwoo when he shifts next to him and doesn’t miss the twitch of his eyes, his injured shoulder kind of tense. “Did Nayoung give you a painkiller?” 

Wonwoo nods his head. “Yeah but they’re not really strong.” 

“Do you want another one?” Mingyu asks. 

Wonwoo hesitates before looking at Mingyu, only holding his gaze for a moment before looking somewhere else. Their faces are only faintly illuminated by Wonwoo’s flashlight placed on the floor between them. “Can you get me one?” 

“Yeah.” Mingyu whispers and moves to grab their bag where they keep the medical and emergency stuff. He looks for the box of painkillers and grabs a water bottle next, moving to sit down next to Wonwoo again. “Here.” 

Instead of taking the pill, Wonwoo opens his mouth and Mingyu just blinks at him. 

“Seriously?”

Wonwoo nods, an amused glint in his crinkling eyes, like he’s smiling and Mingyu feels something strange twitch in his chest, still stupidly blinking at the boy.

He glances around to make sure no one is awake and spying on them before he pops the pill into Wonwoo’s mouth, opening the cap of the bottle to bring it to Wonwoo’s lips.

Wonwoo takes a few gulps and swallows the pill down, some of the water dribbling down his chin and Mingyu almost reaches out to wipe it off; he even moves his hand, but both of him and Wonwoo freeze at his gesture, Wonwoo giving him a curious look and Mingyu turning away to hide his burning cheeks. 

“Thank you.” Wonwoo mumbles, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth and leaning back against the wall, his eyes still focused on Mingyu.

Mingyu puts the things away, refusing to meet the others’ gaze. 

“It’s okay, you know.” Wonwoo whispers, carefully nudging Mingyu with his elbow. It’s just a tiny touch but Mingyu finds that he focuses on it way too much, the gentle pressure and fleeting warmth. “You lasted way longer than others would have with me. Seulgi used to say—" 

He stops midsentence, looking slightly panicked.

_Seulgi?_

Wonwoo just shakes his head, going on like he didn't just slip up right there. "I know I can be a pain in the ass. I’m not like… mad or anything.”

“What are you talking about?” Mingyu asks.

“Because you passed me on to Jihoon.” Wonwoo says. “And you’ve been ignoring me for the last two days.”

Mingyu perks up a little at that, tonguing the inside of his cheek while he tries to control his thoughts. He didn’t really expect Wonwoo to notice or care about the lack of attention from Mingyu. 

“I’m sorry if I pissed you off.” Wonwoo shrugs. “I mean… I know you only took care of me because you had to, but you were still nice about it, so, I’m sorry.”

“That’s not why, Wonwoo.” Mingyu sighs, staring at some of the caked blood that splattered on his jeans after he punched Soonyoung the other day. 

“Then why?”

“I don’t know.” 

Wonwoo presses his lips together. “Why did you punch Soonyoung?”

Mingyu holds his breath and shrugs. “I don’t know.”

He really doesn’t like where this conversation is going, feeling his palms get clammy for some unknown reason. Wonwoo just stares at him for a moment before he turns around to retract something from his bag. 

“Why didn’t you give this to me yourself?” He asks, holding out a manga.

Mingyu gapes a little when he realizes that it’s the manga he picked up at the store back in Jeonghan’s town. But he didn’t take it with him, he made Seungkwan drop it— 

“Where did you get this?” He asks a little too fast, his heart doing something weird when he looks up and locks gazes with Wonwoo. 

“Seungkwan gave it to me.” Wonwoo says. “He said… He said you found it but you were too scared to give it to me to yourself.”  


“He lied.” Mingyu says, his cheeks burning. “Why would I get you _anything_?” 

Wonwoo shrugs, looking kind of small again. “Yes… Why would you?” 

And Mingyu feels like breaking something because it’s so frustrating, looking at Wonwoo’s face, the way he thumbs at the faded cover of the manga, the one Mingyu _did_ pick up for him for some kind of godforsaken reason, this weird tingling feeling in the pit of his stomach that just won’t go away… 

“I don’t know.” He repeats, because he doesn’t know what else to say and because he’s pathetic. 

“What _do_ you know?”

“That… I’m an idiot.” 

Wonwoo smiles, his nose doing that thing again that makes Mingyu’s heart stutter. “At least you’re self aware.” He looks up, still smiling, and Mingyu is pretty sure jumping out of the window right there would hurt less than this. 

“Well, how about we read this manga that _Seungkwan_ got me?” Wonwoo asks, opening the book, grinning when Mingyu rolls his eyes. 

“Suit yourself.”  


“No, I mean, together. You and me.”

“I’m not good at reading.”

Wonwoo hesitates and gives him a surprised look. “You can’t read?”

“No, I _can_ read.” Mingyu mumbles, shrugging. “I’m just no good at it.” 

“What? Why not?”

“I don’t know.” Mingyu purses his lips. “I just always had a hard time with letters. I keep confusing them.”

Mingyu kind of wishes Wonwoo would laugh at him, or would make a joke out of it, maybe tease him, because that’s the reactions he’s used to getting whenever the topic comes up. Or you know, whenever he used to screw up in class when he was asked to read a page in front of everyone and he couldn’t do it.

But Wonwoo seems to think about it for a while before he shrugs and says “Okay, let’s just look at the pictures then.”

“No, you just read it yourself—“

“I’m gonna know this whole manga by heart by the end of this trip, Mingyu.” Wonwoo rolls his eyes. “Let’s just look at the pictures and make fun of the stupid faces they make, okay?”

So they do just that, and Wonwoo tries so hard to make Mingyu crack a smile that Mingyu can’t just _not_ humour him.

Wonwoo gets so into it that he reaches out to grab Mingyu’s wrist at one point, only noticing what he’s doing when Mingyu freezes to stare at Wonwoo’s fingers curled around his arm in excitement.

“Sorry.” Wonwoo says and pulls his hand back like he was burned.

And yeah, Mingyu’s skin feels like that, too.

Like he was burned.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how is this already 40k long? i feel like /nothing/ happened? i... really don't know how this happened. i thought writing kalon was hard but all these characters and the fact this is about to turn into game of thrones.. anyway, pls just bear with me while i cry in my bed and try to make this work :)))


End file.
